Laura Lee Hope

“ Ho, Bert! I want you!" called Mrs. Bobbsey.
"I guess she's going to scold us for making the hay slide on Flossie and
Freddie," said Bert, rather anxiously.
"Well, we couldn't help it," replied his sister. "We didn't know it was so slippery. Yes, Mother; we're coming!" she answered, as Mrs. Bobbsey called again.
But, to the relief of Nan and Bert, their mother did not scold them. She just said:
"You must be a little more careful when you're playing where Flossie and Freddie are. They are younger than you, and don't so well know how to look out for themselves. You must look out for them. ”

“ To and fro swung the older Bobbsey twins.
"Isn't this better than Blueberry Island?" asked Nan.
"Well no, it isn't any better," said Bert; "but it's just as good. Look,
I'm going to let go and drop on the hay."
"Be careful and don't hurt yourself!" begged Nan, as she swung to and fro, her feet raised from the hay beneath her, while Bert, also, swayed slowly to and fro.
"Oh, I'll be careful!" Bert promised. "Anyhow, the hay is nice and soft to fall in. I'll make believe I'm a man in the circus, falling from the top of the tent." ”

“ I'll be," declared Flossie quickly. "I'm going to be AWFUL hungry!"
"Oh dear!" exclaimed Nan, but she was laughing. "That's always the way.
Those two want to do something different."
"Well, we can all make believe we're hungry," said Bert. "And maybe
Dinah will give us some cookies to eat."
"There she goes now. I'll ask her!" offered Nan, as she saw the Bobbsey's fat and good-natured colored cook cross the lawn with a small basket of clothes to hang up. "We'll have a little play-party out in the barn."
"But I'm going to be real hungry—not make believe!" said Freddie. "I want to eat real." ”

“ Flossie and Freddie tried to catch the drifting snow flakes dancing down from the sky. But there was quite a crowd on the sidewalk coming out of the theater, and every one seemed to get in the way of the little Bobbsey twins, so they did not have much luck catching the white crystals.
Into the big, closed auto they piled, and soon they were rolling along the snow-covered streets of Washington toward the home of Nell and Billy Martin. Mr. and Mrs. Martin would be waiting at their house to greet the Bobbseys. It was dark, now, and the lighted lamps made the snow sparkle like a million diamonds. ”

“ But I thought you, Nan, would be interested in seeing beautiful china. You'll have a home of your own, some day, and nothing is nicer in a nice home than beautiful dishes."
"I know that!" cried Nan. "My mamma has some very beautiful dishes, and once in a great while she lets me look them over. Sometimes, too, we have them on the table—when it's some special occasion like a birthday or visitors."
"I don't much like to see the real nice dishes on a table," remarked Bert. "I'm always afraid that I'll break one of them, and then I know my mother would feel pretty bad over it." ”

“ It feels awful funny not to sneeze when you want to. It tickles!"
"And the hay tickled me," went on Freddie. "It's ticklin' me now. There's some down my back," and he wiggled and twisted as he stood in the middle of the barn floor. Snap, the big dog, put his head to one side, and cocked up his ears, looking at the two smaller twins as if asking what it was all about, and what the digging in the hay was all for. ”

“ Nobody can!"
"And you're hungry most all the time," said Bert.
"I'm not at all! I'm hungry only when—when—I'm hungry," was Freddie's reply.
Then the orchestra began to play, and, a little later, the curtain went up and the fairy play began.
I am not going to tell you about it, because you all know the story of Cinderella. There she was, sitting among the ashes of the fire-place, and in came the godmother who made a pumpkin turn into a golden coach, and did all the other things just like the story. ”

“ There's a fire engine! There's a fire engine!" cried the little chap, pointing; and, surely enough, there was one going along the street. It was bright and shiny, smoke was pouring from it and the horses were prancing.
The other Bobbsey twins turned to look at it, and Bert said:
"Pooh, that's only coming back from an alarm."
"That's so," agreed Mr. Bobbsey. "The horses are going too slowly to be running to a fire, Freddie. They must be coming back."
"Well, it's a fire engine, anyhow," said Freddie, and every one had to agree with him. ”

“ Once he had broken a plate of which his mother was very proud, and he remembered how sad she felt.
"No, my china wasn't broken," said Miss Pompret. "In fact, there is a sort of mystery about it."
"Oh, please tell me!" begged Nan. "I like nice dishes and I like stories."
She and Bert looked at the closet of choice china dishes. Children though they were, they could see that the plates, cups, saucers and other dishes were not like the kind set on their table every day. ”

“ I will," agreed Nan. "But, oh, I do hope we can get those dishes for Miss Pompret."
"And I hope we can get the reward of a hundred dollars," murmured Bert.
"I only hope they're the right dishes," said Billy.
"Oh, I'm sure they are," declared Nan. "They have the blue lion on and everything. And if they have the letters 'J.W.' on, then we'll know for sure. Let's go in and see."
"We've got to go slow," declared Billy. "Mustn't be too fast. Let Bert and me go ahead."
"I want to come in, too!" declared Freddie. "I want to buy a whistle. Do they have whistles in here?" ”

“ The gates were closed, the policemen and guards turned away, and now the Bobbsey twins and their friends were ready for something else.
"Where do you want to go?" asked Billy of Bert.
"Oh, I don't know. 'Most anywhere, I guess."
"Could we go to see the Washington Monument?" asked Nan. "I've always wanted to see that, ever since I saw the picture of it in one of daddy's books at home."
"I don't believe we'd better go out there alone," said Nell. "It's quite a way from here. We'd better have our mothers or our fathers with us. ”

“ You can't handle nice china as you can your baseball or your football," said Miss Pompret, with a smile.
"Well, I guess they couldn't treat dishes like baseballs and footballs!" cried Nan. "Just think of throwing a sugar bowl up into the air or hitting it with a bat, or kicking a teapot all around the lots!" ”

“ In a minute more the Bobbsey twins were at the barn where the sugar and molasses cookies Dinah had given them were put in a safe place.
"There are the ropes!" exclaimed Bert, as he pointed to some dangling from a beam near the haymow.
"They're too high to climb!" Nan said, for some of the ropes were fast to the rafters of the barn.
"Oh, we won't climb 'em!" Bert quickly returned, for he knew his mother would never allow this. "We'll just swing on 'em, low down near this pile of hay, so if we fall we can't hurt ourselves." ”

“ FREDDIE'S REAL ALARM
"I hope nothing has happened—that the boat isn't on fire," said Mrs. Bobbsey to her husband. "That would be terrible!"
"I hardly think that is it," he said. "There may be a small fire, somewhere on the boat, but, even if there is, they have a way of putting it out. I'll go and see What it is. You stay with the children."
But just then, after another clanging of the bell, some one was heard to laugh—the ringing, hearty laugh of a man.
'There!" exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey, "I guess everything is all right. They wouldn't be laughing if there was any danger." ”

“ So, with the two boys in the lead, followed by Nell and Nan and Flossie and Freddie, the children entered the second-hand and souvenir store.
A bell on the door rang with a loud clang as Billy opened it, and when the children stepped inside the shop an old man with a black, curly beard and long black hair that seemed as if it had never been combed, came out from a back room.
"What you want to buy, little childrens?" he asked. "I got a lot of nice things, cheap! Very cheap!" ”

“ But Billy and Nell Martin lived in Washington, District of Columbia (which is what the letters D. C. stand for) and, Bert and Nan knew, Washington was the capital, or chief city, of the United States.
"Mr. Martin came in to see me on business," explained Daddy Bobbsey. "He is traveling for a lumber firm, and on this trip he brought his boy and girl with him."
"They aren't twins, though," said Mr. Martin with a nod at Nan and Bert.
"I think it's lovely to be a twin!" said Nell, with a smile at Nan. "Don't you have lots of fun?" ”

“ Here I show you!"
"I don't want a football. You can't play football when the snow is on the ground!" exclaimed Bert, as the man started toward some shelves on the other side of the room.
"I want a doll," whispered Flossie. "Just a little doll."
"A doll!" exclaimed the man. "Sure I gots a fine lot of dolls. See!"
Quickly he held out a large one with very blue eyes and hair just like
Flossie's.
"Only a dollar seventy-five," he said. "Very cheap!"
"Oh, that's too much!" exclaimed Nan. "We haven't that much money. She wants only a little ten-cent doll." ”

“ Billy. "But you'd better go a bit slow."
"Maybe somebody else'll buy 'em!" exclaimed Nan.
"Oh, I don't believe they will," said Nell, "This is a quiet street, and this shop doesn't do much business. We only come here once in a while because some things are cheaper. We never bought any second-hand things."
"There's nobody coming down the street now," observed Bert, who was beginning to agree with Billy in the matter. "If we see any one going in that we think will buy the dishes, we can hurry in ahead of 'em. We'll stand here and talk a minute. What is it you want to say, Billy?" ”

“ He seemed about to leave.
"Oh, well, what I cares if I die in the poorhouse?" asked the old man. "Here! Take 'em. But I am losing money. Those is valuable dishes. If I had more I could sell 'em for ten dollars maybe. But as they is all I got take 'em for a dollar and thirty-four. You couldn't make it a dollar thirty-five, could you?"
"No," said Bert decidedly, "we couldn't!"
"Oh, dear!" sighed the old man. "Take 'em, then."
"They're awfully dusty," complained Nell, as she looked at the sugar bowl and pitcher.
"That's 'cause they're so old and valuable, my dear," snarled the old man. ”

“ Then I want to take your mother to the art gallery and after that—well, we'll see what happens next," and he smiled at the Bobbsey twins.
"I know it will be something nice!" exclaimed Nan.
"I hope it's something good to eat!" murmured Bert. "I'm hungry!"
"I'd like to see a fire!" cried Freddie. "Do they ever have fires in
Washington, Daddy?"
"Oh, yes, big ones, sometimes. But we really don't want to see any, because a fire means danger and trouble for people."
"And wettings, too," put in Flossie. "Sometimes when Freddie plays fire he gets me wet." ”