For a few days after the Fourth it rained, as it always does, on account of all the noise that goes up in the air to shake the clouds.
"You can play in the coach house," Aunt Sarah told the children, "but be careful not to run in and out and get wet." The children promised to remember, and soon they were all out in the big wagon house playing merrily. Freddie climbed in the wagon and made believe it was a "big fire engine." Bert attached a bell on the side for him, and when he pulled a rope this bell would clang like a chemical apparatus. Nan and Flossie had all their dolls in the pretty new carriage with the soft gray cushions, and in this the little girls made believe driving to New York and doing some wonderful shopping.
"Freddie, you be coachman," coaxed Flossie, "because we are inside and have to have someone drive us."
"But who will put out all the fires?" Freddie asked, as he clanged the bell vigorously.
"Make b'lieve they are all out," Flossie told him.
"But you can't make b'lieve about fires," argued the little fellow, "'cause they're really."
"I tell you," Nan suggested. "We will suppose this is a great big high tally-ho party, and the ladies always drive them. I'll be away up high on the box, but we ought to have someone blow a horn!"
"I'll blow the horn," Freddie finally gave in, "cause I got that big fire out now."
So Freddie climbed up on the high coach with his sisters, and blew the horn until Nan told them they had reached New York and were going to stop for dinner.
There were so many splendid things to play with in the coach house, tables, chairs, and everything, that the Bobbseys hardly knew it before it was lunch time, the morning passed so quickly.