The Bobbsey Twins in Washington | Page 3

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."
"And so you can!" declared Nan. "I'll get enough for all of us."
A little later the Bobbsey twins--the two pairs of them--were on the
way to the barn that stood a little way back of the house. Mr. Bobbsey
did not live on a farm. He lived in a town, but his place was large
enough to have a barn on it as well as a house. He kept a horse, and
sometimes a cow, but just now there was no cow in the stable--only a
horse.
And the horse was not there, either, just then, for it was being used to
pull a wagon about the streets of Lakeport. Mr. Bobbsey had an
automobile, but he also kept the horse, and this animal was sometimes
used by the clerks from the lumber office.
So out to the barn, which had in it the winter supply of hay and oats for
the horse, went the Bobbsey twins. Nan and Bert, being older, reached
the place first, each one carrying some sugar and molasses cookies
Dinah had given them. After Nan and Bert ran Flossie and Freddie,
each one looking anxiously at the packages of cookies,
"Don't those cookies look good?" cried Flossie.
"And I guess they'll eat just as good as they look," was Freddie's
comment.
Just then Nan's foot slipped on a small stone, and she came very near
falling down.

"Oh!" cried Flossie and Freddie together.
"Don't drop your cookies, Nan!" came quickly from Bert.
"Oh, if you dropped 'em they'd get all dirty," said Flossie.
"They wouldn't get very dirty," answered Freddie hopefully. "Anyway,
we could brush 'em off. They'd be good enough to eat, wouldn't they?"
and he looked at Bert.
"I guess they wouldn't get very dirty," answered Bert. "Anyway, Nan
didn't drop them. But you'd better be careful, Nan," he went on.
"Don't be so scared, Bert Bobbsey," answered his sister. "I won't drop
them."
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."
"I want to swing on a rope, too!" exclaimed Freddie, as he heard what
his older brother and sister were talking of. "I like to be a sailor and
swing on a rope."
"Not now, Freddie," answered Bert. "The ropes are too high for you
and Flossie. You just play around on the barn floor, and you can watch
Nan and me swing. Then we'll play steamboat, maybe."
"I want to be the steam, and go puff-puff!" cried Freddie.

"And I want to be the captain and say 'All aboard!'" was Flossie's wish.
"You can take turns," agreed Bert. "Now don't get in our way, Flossie
and Freddie. Nan and I want to see how big a swing we can take by
holding to the ropes."
"All right. I'll go and see if I can find any eggs," replied Freddie. "Hens
lay eggs in the barn."
"Well, if you find a nest don't step in it and break all the eggs," warned
Nan.
She and Bert, as Flossie and Freddie went marching around the big
barn, climbed up on the pile of hay, and began swinging on the ropes.
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