boys gets that balloon first will get ten dollars. That's what
we pay for bringing it back!"

With a dash every boy started for the spot where the balloon had
landed. There were quite a few others besides the Bobbseys, and they
tumbled over each other trying to get there first. Ned Prentice,
Nettie's brother, was one of the best runners, and he cut across the
orchard to get a clear way out of the crowd.

"Go it, Bert!" called John.

"Keep it up, Harry!" yelled someone else.

"You'd get it, Tom!" came another voice.

But Ned was not in the regular race, and nobody noticed him.

"They've got it," called the excited girls.

"It's Harry!"

"No, it's Bert!"

"'Tisn't either--it's Ned!" called John, as the only poor boy in the
crowd proudly touched the big empty gas-bag!

"Three cheers for Ned!" called Uncle Daniel, for he and Mr. Bobbsey had
joined in the crowd.

"Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!" shouted all the boys good-naturedly, for Ned
was a favorite companion, besides being one who really needed the money.

"Suppose we drive down," Uncle Daniel suggested. "Then we can bring Ned
back with his ten dollars."

This was agreed upon as a good plan, and as quickly as John had hitched
up the big wagon ail the boys piled in with the aeronaut and started
for the grove.

CHAPTER XI

THE LITTLE GARDENERS

When little Ned Prentice put the ten-dollar bill in his mother's hand,
on that pleasant Fourth of July evening, he felt like a man. His mother
could hardly believe the story of Ned's getting the money just for
finding a balloon, but when it was explained how valuable the balloon
was, and how it sometimes takes days of searching in the woods to find
one after the balloonist lets go and drops down with his parachute, she
was finally convinced that the money rightfully belonged to Ned.

"No one needs it more than I do," Mrs. Prentice told Mr. Bobbsey, who
had brought Ned home in the wagon, "for since the baby was sick we have
hardly been able to meet our bills, it cost so much for medicine."

"We were all glad when Ned got there first,"

Harry said politely, "because we knew he deserved the reward most."

As Ned was a poor boy, and had to work on farms during vacation, his
father being dead and only one brother being old enough to go to work,
the reward turned out a great blessing, for ten dollars is a good deal
of money for a little boy to earn at one time.

"Be sure to come up to our fireworks tonight," Harr