"OH LOOK!"
FOR a time the actors on the stage, taking part in the fairy play, had
to stop. They could not go on because the Chinese children were crying
so hard. And really it was a strange thing to have happen.
Then Cinderella herself--or at least the young lady who was playing that
part--seeing what the matter was, stepped to the front of the stage and
said to the Chinese minister:
"Tell your little children there will be no more shooting. They will not
be frightened again. I am sorry it happened," and she bowed and kissed
her hand to the older boys and girls, in the box. They were not
frightened as were the smaller ones.
"It is all right. They will be themselves again soon. I thank you," said
the Chinese minister, rising and bowing to the actress. He spoke in
English, but with a queer little twist to his words, just as we would
speak queerly if we tried to talk Chinese.
Then the sobbing of the frightened children gradually ceased, and the
play went on. But the Bobbsey twins were almost as much interested in
the queer, beautifully dressed foreign children in the box as they were
in the play itself. Indeed Flossie and Freddie looked from the stage to
the box and from the box back to the stage again so often that their
mother said they would have stiff necks. However, they didn't have,
which only goes to show that children's necks can stand a great deal of
twisting and turning without getting tired.
So the play went on, and very pretty it was. Cinderella tried on the
glass slipper. It fitted perfectly, and everything came out all right,
and she and the prince lived happily forever after.
"Is that all?" asked Flossie, when the curtain went down for the last
time, and the people began getting up to leave.
"That's all," her mother told her. "Didn't you like it?"
"Oh, yes, it was nice," said Flossie. "But they didn't have as much red
fire as I wanted to see."
"And they didn't have a single fire engine!" sighed Freddie.
"Too bad!" laughed Bert. "We'll look for a show for you, Freddie, where
they have nothing but fire engines!"
But, after all, even without quite enough red fire and not a fire engine
on the stage, the play was enjoyed by the Bobbsey twins and their little
friends, the Martin children.
"Where are we going?' asked Nan, as they came out of the theater and Mr.
Bobbsey led the children toward a big automobile that stood at the curb.
"We are going to the Martins for the evening," answered Daddy Bobbsey.
"Mr. Martin sent down his auto for us, so we don't have to go out in the
storm."
"It was very kind of him," added Mrs. Bobbsey.
"I like the snow!" cried Freddie. "I'm going to make a snow fort,
to-morrow, and a snow man."
"And I'm going to make a little snow doll!" declared Flossie.
"Wait until you see if there's snow enough," advised Bert.
"Will there be much, do you think?" Nan inquired of Nell.
"Well, we don't often have a very heavy fall of snow here," was the
answer, "though it sometimes happens. It's snowing hard now."
And so it was, And the weather was getting cold, too, almost as cold as
back in Lakeport. But the Bobbseys were used to it. Their eyes were
shining and their cheeks were red. Flossie and Freddie tried to catch
the drifting snow flakes dancing down from the sky. But there was quite
a crowd on the side-walk 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.
"Oh, it's just lovely!" sighed Nan, as she leaned back against the
cushions and peered from the window.
"It looks just like a fairy play out there," and Nell pointed to the
glittering snow.
"It looks like--like one of those funny Christmas cards that twinkle
so!" declared Freddie.
"Oh, it will soon be Christmas, won't it?" exclaimed Flossie, who sat on
her mother's lap. "I wonder what I'll get!"
"I want something, too!" cried Freddie. "Oh, won't it be nice at
Christmas!"
"Yes, it will soon be here--much sooner than we think," said Mr.
Bobbsey.
"Shall we go home for Christmas?" Nan asked.
"Oh, yes," her father told her. "My business here is nearly finished,
and we'll go back to Lakeport next week."
"Aren't we going to buy anything to take home--souvenirs I mean?" added
Bert. "I promised to bring Sam something."
"And I want to take Dinah a present!" declared Nan.
"Yes, we must do a little shopping for things like that," said Mrs.
Bobbsey. "You children will have a chance next week."
And they talked of that, and the things they would buy, until the
automobile stopped at the Martin house, when they all went inside.
After supper, or dinner as it is more often called, the children had fun
playing games and looking at picture books, while the older folk talked
among themselves. Mr. and Mrs. Martin were quite interested in hearing
of how the Chinese children cried when the fire cracker went off.
"I have never seen any of the ambassadors or the ministers from the
Oriental countries wear their native dress," said Mr. Martin. "But there
is no reason why they shouldn't."
"No," said Mr. Bobbsey, "there isn't. If we went to a foreign country we
would want to wear the clothes we had always worn at home, and we
wouldn't like to be stared at for doing it, either."
The evening passed pleasantly, but at last Mrs. Bobbsey noticed that
Flossie and Freddie were getting sleepy, so she said they would have to
go back to the hotel and to bed.
"And I hope the fire engines don't wake us up to-night," said Nan. "I
want to sleep."
"I do, too," added her mother. Nothing happened that night, and in the
morning there was enough snow on the ground for the making of a small
snow man, at least, and as many snowballs as the children wanted to
throw at him. Flossie and Freddie were warmly dressed, and allowed to
play out in a little yard in front of the hotel. It was rather a treat
for Washington children to have as much snow as they now had, and many
were out enjoying it.
Flossie and Freddie played as they did at home, and Bert and Nan, with
Nell and Billy Martin, who came over, watched the smaller twins.
"Let's throw snowballs at a target," said Freddie presently. "I'm going
to play I'm a soldier and shoot the cannon."
"You haven't any target, Freddie Bobbsey," declared Flossie.
"Yes, I have, too!" answered her twin brother. "Just look here!"
Freddie had espied a small tin can standing in an areaway not far away.
He ran to get this, and then set it up on a near-by iron railing.
"There's my target!" he exclaimed; and both he and Flossie began to
throw snowballs at it and were in high glee when the can tumbled over.
Thus the fun went on for some time.
After lunch Mrs. Bobbsey said:
"Now, children, if you wish, you may go out and buy some souvenirs. As
long as Nell and Billy are here to go with you, I will not have to go,
since they know their way about the streets near our hotel. I'm going to
give you each a certain sum, and you may spend it in any way you like
for souvenirs to take home to Sam, Dinah and your other friends. Now
start out and have a good time."
The snow had stopped and the sun was shining, which meant that the white
covering would not last long. But it gave a touch of winter to
Washington, and the children liked it.
Down the street went the six children, two by two, the four Bobbsey
twins and Nell and Billy Martin. Flossie and Freddie walked together,
then came Billy and Bert, while Nan walked with Nell.
"Here's a store where they have nice things," said Nell, as they stopped
in front of one, the windows of which held all sorts of light and pretty
articles, from fans and postcards to vases and pocket knives, some with
tiny photographic views of Washington set in the handles.
"Let's go in there and buy something," proposed Bert.
In they trooped, and you may well believe me when I say that the woman
who kept this store had a busy half-hour trying to wait on the four
Bobbsey twins at once. Nell and Billy did not want to buy anything, but
the Bobbseys did.
At last, however, each one had bought something, and then Bert said:
"I know where to go next."
"Where?" asked Nan.
"Around the corner," her brother answered as they came out of the
souvenir shop. "There's a cheaper place there. I looked in the windows
yesterday and saw the prices marked. We haven't got much money left, and
we've got to go to a cheap place for the rest of our things."
"All right," agreed Nan, and Bert led the way. The other store, just as
he said, was only around the corner, and, as he had told his sister, the
windows were filled with many things, some of them marked at prices
which were very low.
Suddenly, as Nan was peering in through the glass, she gave a startled
cry, and, plucking Bert by the sleeve, exclaimed:
"Oh, look!"