“Course engines eat!” cried Freddie. “Don’t they eat piles of coal?” he went on triumphantly.
“Well, not an auto engine,” said Nan.
“Yes, that eats up gasolene,” said Bert.
But they were all in a hurry to listen to what their father might have to say, and so wasted no further time in argument. And when the rice pudding was brought in Nan said:
“Dinner is over now, Daddy, for this is the dessert, and when you’re in a hurry to go back to the office you don’t wait for that. So can’t we hear the strange news now?”
“Yes, I guess so,” answered her father, and he drew from his pocket a letter. “This came this morning,” he said, “and I thought it best to come right home and tell you about it,” he said to his wife.
“The letter is from my Cousin Jasper. When we were boys we lived in the same town. Jasper was always fond of the ocean, and often said, when he grew up, he would make a long voyage.”
“Freddie and I were having a voyage on a raft to-day,” said Flossie. “And we had fun until Bert fell in.”
“I didn’t fall in—I jumped in and I got stuck in the mud,” put in Bert.
“Don’t interrupt, dears, if you want to hear Daddy’s news,” said Mrs. Bobbsey, and her husband, after looking at the letter, as if to make sure about what he was talking, went on.