“What did he want of a cigar box?” asked Nan.
“Don’t tell!” cautioned Freddie. “You promised you wouldn’t tell, Flossie Bobbsey!”
“All right, I won’t,” she promised. “Anyhow, I don’t know, ’cause you didn’t tell me. But I got him a box, an’ it was dusty an’ it makes me sneeze an’——”
“That’s enough of this sneezing!” declared Bert. “Let’s hide what we have and get out. Dinah’s in the kitchen now, and if she hears us scuffling around she’ll open the door and see us and she’ll think something is going to happen.”
“Well, something is going to happen,” whispered Nan, with a smile. But you could not see the smile because it was rather dark in the hall. “To-morrow is Dinah’s birthday, and, oh! won’t she be surprised?”
“She’ll be more surprised,” said Freddie, though neither Bert nor Nan knew just what he meant just then. Later they did.
True enough, it was the birthday of Dinah Johnson, the fat, jolly, good-natured colored cook of the Bobbsey family, which included the four twins. Dinah’s birthday was always celebrated, especially by the twins, who always brought out their presents as a sort of surprise.
This time they were bringing them down from their rooms the night before the birthday, to hide the things in a big closet near the kitchen.
Thus the gifts would be ready the first thing in the morning, to give to Dinah at the breakfast table, when daddy would call her in from the kitchen to be surprised.
It was Bert’s plan thus to hide the things ahead of time, and Flossie and Freddie, of course, had begged to be allowed to take part.