OFF FOR FLORIDA
There were many matters to be attended to at the Bobbsey home before the start could be made for Florida. Mr. Bobbsey had to leave some one in charge of his lumber business, and Mrs. Bobbsey had to plan for shutting up the house while the family were away. Sam and Dinah would go on a vacation while the others were in Florida, they said, and the pet animals, Snap and Snoop, would be taken care of by kind neighbors.
"What are you doing, Freddie?" his mother asked him one day, when she heard him and Flossie hurrying about in the playroom, while Mrs. Bobbsey was sorting over clothes to take on the trip.
"Oh, we"re getting out some things we want to take," the little boy answered. "Our playthings, you know."
"Can I take two of my dolls?" Flossie asked.
"I think one will be enough," her mother said. "We can"t carry much baggage, and if we go out on the deep blue sea in a motor boat we shall have very little room for any toys. Take only one doll, Flossie, and let that be a small one."
"All right," Flossie answered.
Mrs. Bobbsey paid little attention to the small twins for a while as she and Nan were busy packing. Bert had gone down to the lumberyard office on an errand for his father. Pretty soon there arose a cry in the playroom.
"Mother, make Freddie stop!" exclaimed Flossie.
"What are you doing, Freddie?" his mother called.
"I"m not doing anything," he answered, as he often did when Flossie and he were having some little trouble.
"He is too doing something!" Flossie went on. "He splashed a whole lot of water on my doll."
"Well, it"s a rubber doll and water won"t hurt," Freddie answered.
"Anyhow I didn"t mean to."
"There! He"s doing it again!" cried Flossie. "Make him stop, Mother!"
"Freddie, what _are_ you doing?" demanded Mrs. Bobbsey. "Nan," she went on in a lower voice, "you go and peep in. Perhaps Flossie is just too fussy."
Before Nan could reach the playroom, which was down the hall from the room where Mrs. Bobbsey was sorting over the clothes in a large closet, Flossie cried again:
"There! Now you got me all over wet!"
"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, laying aside a pile of garments. "I suppose I"ll have to go and see what they are doing!"
Before she could reach the playroom, however, Nan came back along the hall. She was laughing, but trying to keep quiet about it, so Flossie and Freddie would not hear her.
"What is it?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey. "What are they doing?"
"Freddie is playing with his toy fire engine," Nan said. "And he must have squirted some water on Flossie, for she is wet."
"Much?"
"No, only a little."
"Well, he mustn"t do it," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "I guess they are so excited about going to Florida that they really don"t know what they are doing."
Mrs. Bobbsey peered into the room where the two smaller twins had gone to play. Flossie was trying different dresses on a small rubber doll she had picked out to take with her. On the other side of the room was Freddie with his toy fire engine. It was one that could be wound up, and it had a small pump and a little hose that spurted out real water when a tank on the engine was filled. Freddie was very fond of playing fireman.
"There, he"s doing it again!" cried Flossie, just as her mother came in.
"He"s getting me all wet! Mother, make him stop!"
Mrs. Bobbsey was just in time to see Freddie start his toy fire engine, and a little spray of water did shower over his twin sister.
"Freddie, stop it!" cried his mother. "You know you mustn"t do that!"
"I can"t help it," Freddie said.
"Nonsense! You can"t help it? Of course you can help squirting water on your sister!"
"He can so!" pouted Flossie.
"No, Mother! I can"t, honest," said Freddie. "The hose of my fire engine leaks, and that makes the water squirt out on Flossie. I didn"t mean to do it. I"m playing there"s a big fire and I have to put it out. And the hose busts--just like it does at real fires--and everybody gets all wet.
I didn"t do it on purpose!"
"Oh, I thought you did," said Flossie. "Well, if it"s just make believe I don"t mind. You can splash me some more, Freddie."
"Oh, no he mustn"t!" said Mrs. Bobbsey, trying not to laugh, though she wanted to very much. "It"s all right to make believe you are putting out a fire, Freddie boy, but, after all, the water is really wet and Flossie is damp enough now. If you want to play you must fix your leaky hose."
"All right, Mother, I will," promised the little boy.
One corner of the room was his own special place to play with the toy fire engine. A piece of oil cloth had been spread down so water would not harm anything, and here Freddie had many good times.
There really was a hole in the little rubber hose of his engine, and the water did come out where it was not supposed to. That was what made Flossie get wet, but it was not much.
"And, anyhow, it didn"t hurt her rubber doll," said Freddie.
"No, she likes it," Flossie said. "And I like it too, Freddie, if it"s only make believe fun."
"Well, don"t do it any more," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "You"ll soon have water enough all around you, when you sail on the blue sea, and that ought to satisfy you. Mend the hole in your fire engine hose, Freddie dear."
"All right, Mother," he answered. "Anyhow, I guess I"ll play something else now. Toot! Toot! The fire"s out!" he called, and Mrs. Bobbsey was glad of it.
Freddie put away his engine, which he and Flossie had to do with all their toys when they were done playing with them, and then ran out to find Snap, the dog with which he wanted to have a race up and down the yard, throwing sticks for his pet to bring back to him.
Flossie took her rubber doll and went over to Helen Porter"s house, while Nan and Mrs. Bobbsey went back to the big closet to sort over the clothes, some of which would be taken on the Florida trip with them.
"I"m going to take my fire engine with me," Freddie said, when he had come in after having had fun with Snap.
"Do you mean on the ship?" asked Nan.
"Yes; I"m going to take my little engine on the ship with me. But first I"m going to have the hose mended."
"You won"t need a fire engine on a ship," said Mrs. Bobbsey.
"Oh, I might," answered Freddie. "Sometimes ships get on fire, and you"ve got to put the fire out. I"ll take it all right."