"I'd like to go now," murmured Bert. "Maybe we might see that tramp in
Washington, and get back Miss Pompret's dishes."
"Rare china," muttered Nan, half under her breath.
"What tramp is that, and what about Miss Pompret's dishes?" asked Daddy
Bobbsey, as he took his cup of tea from Dinah.
Then he had to hear the story of that afternoon's visit of Nan and Bert.
"Oh, I guess Miss Pompret will never see her two china pieces again," said Mr. Bobbsey. "If the tramp took them he must have sold them, if he didn't smash them. So don't think of that hundred dollars, Bert and Nan."
"But couldn't we go to Washington, anyhow?" Bert wanted to know.
"Well, not right away, I'm afraid," his father answered. "You have to go to school, you know."
But a few days after that something happened. About eleven o'clock in the morning Bert, Nan, Flossie and Freddie came trooping home. Into the house they burst with shouts of laughter.
"What's the matter? What is it? Has anything happened?" cried Mrs.
Bobbsey. "Why are you home from school at such a time of day?"
"There isn't any school," explained Nan.