Flossie and Freddie rode in the back part of the overturned chair, and Laddie sat in front of them and made believe he was a chauffeur of a taxicab, running about the streets of New York.
As Laddie knew the names of many places where the real taxicabs stop, he could call them out from time to time. So that Flossie and Freddie went to the Grand Central Terminal, to Central Park, to the Public Library and many other places (make-believe, of course) in the queer pretend automobile.
"Oh, I'm going to stop off at the Public Liberry!" called out Flossie, while the play was going on.
"What you going to stop off at the Public Liberry for?" asked Freddie.
"I'm going to get a great big picture book," returned the little girl.
"'Bout Cinderella?" questioned her brother.
"No. I'm going to get a picture book with all kinds of stories in it."
"We can't stop now!" yelled out Laddie. "We're three blocks past the liberry already."
"Well, then I won't bother," answered Flossie.
After that they played steamboat, a tin horn being the whistle, which was tooted every time the boat stopped or started. This game was great fun, and the children played it for some time until down in the street Laddie heard the tooting of fire engines and the clanging of bells.
"Oh, there's another fire!" he cried. "Let's go down to see it."
"No, indeed!" cried Mrs. Whipple, with a laugh, coming into the room just then. "No more fires for you boys. You can look out the window, but that's all."
And so they had to be content with that. The fire did not seem to be a large one, though it was somewhere near the hotel.
Down in the street were a number of engines and hose carts, and also two police automobile wagons, which had brought the officers who were to keep the crowd from coming so close as to get in the way of the fireman.
But there is not much amusement in looking out of a window at a fire which cannot be seen, and Flossie, Freddie and Laddie soon tired of this fun--if fun it was. Mrs. Whipple had left the room, to see a lady who called, when Freddie, taking a last look from the window to the street below, said:
"Get in one of the police wagons and have a ride," went on the small Bobbsey boy.
"Oh, let's do it!" cried Flossie, always ready for anything that Freddie proposed. "How you going to do it?" she asked her brother.