“Now what is it?” he asked, turning back to look at his wife.
“I said there was some strange animal—maybe more than one of them—in our car!”
“How could there be?” asked Mr. Bobbsey with a laugh. “That is, unless you call the twins animals, and they are—in a way.”
“No, I don’t mean them,” answered his wife. “Oh!” she gave a little scream. “They’re crawling around my feet. And listen to them!”
Now that it was quiet, Mr. Bobbsey, too, could hear a faint whimpering sound. By this time Flossie and Freddie, who had dozed off into a sleepy little nap after lunch, awakened. They sat up, rubbed their eyes, and Flossie cried:
“What we stopping for? Are we at Cloverbank? I don’t see any clover or any bank, either!”
“We stopped because your mother thought she felt and heard some kind of an animal in the car,” explained Mr. Bobbsey, who did not know quite what it was all about, for he could see nothing as he looked over into the rear of the machine. But that he could see nothing was not to be wondered at, for the space was piled with luggage, robes, and things the children had brought with them, so there was scarcely room for Mrs. Bobbsey and the two small twins.
“I didn’t think I felt or heard something!” said the children’s mother in firm tones. “I felt something and heard something, and I feel it now! What is it?”
Then Freddie spoke up and said:
“I guess maybe it’s the kittens!”