“Well, I’m glad it was no worse,” remarked Mrs. Bobbsey, with a smile. “One broken dish doesn’t matter, especially on a birthday. But perhaps you had better take Snoop out, Nan, so he won’t make any more trouble for Dinah.”
“I’ll give him a ride in Flossie’s doll’s go-cart that she got for Daddy!” laughed Nan.
“No, you will not!” protested the other Bobbsey girl. “I’m going to give my doll a ride. Come on, Daddy,” she begged. “Let’s take a walk and ride my doll.”
“And let’s have a catch with my ball—I mean the ball I gave you!” cried Freddie.
“Maybe I’d better put on my new robe and wear my new birthday sweater before I go doll-carriaging and ball-playing,” suggested Mr. Bobbsey, with a laugh.
“Well, don’t take the new wallet I gave you,” warned his wife. “I put a penny in, for luck, and you might lose it.”
But after again admiring the robe and the sweater, the gifts of Bert and Nan, Mr. Bobbsey laid them aside and had a few catches with Freddie, using the new ball. Then he wheeled Flossie’s folding go-cart, giving the little girl’s best doll a ride.
After that the four twins went off by themselves to play with some of their boy and girl chums in the twilight of the fading June day, while Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey sat on the porch.
“Do you really think,” asked Mrs. Bobbsey of her husband, “that you will take the children to Cloverbank for the summer?”
“I don’t know,” he answered. “What do you think? Mr. Watson seems to want to have us come. I know he has a large place there with plenty of room in the house, and there is a big farm, an orchard, and woods near by where the twins could play. There is also a creek and a little lake, I believe.”