The Bobbsey twins made up a game to play with the elevated railroad: They pretended they were sending loads of different things one to the other. Bits of paper were oranges and burned matches did very well for bunches of bananas.
“My, it’s raining harder than ever!” exclaimed Bert, as he went to the window to look out.
“Do you see the old lady with the green umbrella?” asked Nan.
“No,” her brother answered. “She’s gone. Hi, Freddie, what you doing?” he asked, as he saw the little fellow crawling under the large ironing board laid across the seats of two chairs.
“I’m playing I’m under the railroad bridge,” said Freddie.
“Oh, I’m coming under, too!” cried Flossie, and she crawled to where Freddie sat under the ironing board.
“Be careful!” warned Bert. “Don’t jiggle that board or you’ll upset the whole railroad! You’d better come out from under there.”
He reached to get hold of Freddie’s arm to drag him forth. Just then a loud clap of thunder sounded.
“Oh!” screamed Flossie, and she made a dash, tumbling over.
Bang! down came the ironing board, elevated railroad, toy engine, cars and everything, on the heads of the smaller Bobbsey twins. At that moment another terrific clap of thunder fairly shook the house, and Nan cried out in terror and Bert, too, uttered an exclamation of fear.