“Toot! Toot!”
“Toot! Toot!” answered Freddie. He began pushing the other way on the pole and the raft started back toward the shore they had left.
“What are you doing?” asked Bert Bobbsey, as the mass of boards and rails came closer to him. “What are you two playing?”
“Steamboat,” Freddie answered. “If you want us to stop for you, why, you’ve got to toot.”
“Toot what?” asked Bert.
“Toot your whistle,” Freddie replied. “This is a regular steamboat. Toot if you want me to stop.”
He kept on pushing with the pole until Bert, with a laugh, made the tooting sound as Flossie had done. Then Freddie let the raft stop near his older brother and sister.
“Oh, Bert!” exclaimed Nan Bobbsey, “are you going to get on?”
“Sure I am,” he answered, as he began taking off his shoes and stockings. “It’s big enough for the four of us. Where’d you get it, Freddie?”
“It was partly made—I guess some of the boys from town must have started it. Flossie and I put more boards and rails on it, and we’re having a ride.”