"You didn't tell me not to—not to-day you didn't tell me," Freddie defended himself.
"No, because I didn't think you'd do such a thing," replied his mother. "I can't tell you every day the different things you mustn't do—there are too many of them."
"But there are so many things we can do too—oh, just lots of them."
"Yes, and the things we may do and the things we're not to do are just awful hard to tell apart sometimes, Momsie," put in Flossie.
"Yes'm, they are," added Freddie. "And how is a feller and his sister to know every single time what they're to do and what they're not to do?"
"Suppose you try stopping before you do a thing to ask yourselves whether you ought to do it or not, and not wait until after the thing is done to ask yourselves that question," suggested Mrs. Bobbsey. "That might help some."
"Well, I won't go wading any more to-day," promised the little fellow. "But I didn't think I'd get stuck in the mud."
Mrs. Bobbsey wanted to laugh, but she did not dare let the two small twins see her, for they would think it only fun, and really they ought not to have gotten wet and muddy.
"And so you couldn't find Snoop," remarked Mr. Bobbsey at supper that night. "Well, it's too bad. I guess I'll have to get you another dog and cat."
"No, don't—just yet, please," said Nan. "Maybe we'll find our own, and we never could love any new ones as we love Snap and Snoop."