which he did not, as the next day proved.

For two or three days Mr. Bobbsey was busy attending to his business in New York, but he found time to take the children to see the many sights.

"I want to go on a ferryboat and across the Brooklyn Bridge," said Flossie, one day.

"Oh, I want to go on a ferryboat too. And I want to see what makes the ferryboat go!" cried Freddie eagerly.

"All right; I'll take you out to-day," answered Mr. Bobbsey. "And I'll show you as much of the ferryboat as I can," he added.

Then they went across the Brooklyn Bridge on a car, and later on they took quite a trip on the ferryboat to St. George, Staten Island, and back, and Freddy even got a glimpse into the engine-room of the boat and went home satisfied.

"There is so much to see!" exclaimed Nan, after a day spent in the Bronx Park, where there are many animals. "_I_ don't believe we could see it _all_ in a year."

"That's right," agreed Bert. "But we're going to see something good this afternoon."

"What?" asked Flossie. "Are we going to another 'quarium?"

"No, to a matinee in the theatre," said her larger brother. "It's an awful funny play--anyhow, the billboard pictures are."

"Are we all going?" asked Freddie.

"Yes," answered Mrs. Bobbsey. "We are all going."

Much excited over the joys before them, for in Lakeport there was only one theatre, and plays did not show there often, the Bobbsey twins made ready to go to the matinee. Flossie and Nan wore new frocks, and Bert and Freddie had new suits, so they were quite dressed-up, they felt.

The play was a very amusing one, and the children laughed so hard that Freddie at last rolled off his seat and had to be picked up by his father.

But this only made all the more fun, and the people around the Bobbsey family joined in the laughter when an usher helped Mr. Bobbsey place Freddie in his proper place again.

Then the curtain went down on the first act, and as the lights were turned up the children looked about them. Freddie found himself seated next to a boy about his own age, who, with an elderly lady, had come in after the performance began. This was why Freddie had not noticed his little neighbor before.

"Isn't this a dandy show!" cried Freddie.

"The best I ever saw," answered the boy. "What's your name?"

"Freddie Bobbsey. What's yours?"

"Laddie d.i.c.kerson. Where do you live?"

"We live away up in Lakeport, but we're staying at the Parkview Hotel."

"Why--why, that's where _we_ live, my mother and my uncle and my aunt. My father is dead. We live at the hotel, except in the Summer, when we go to the seash.o.r.e. What floor are you on?"

"The tenth. I know 'cause I holler it out when we come up in the elevator."

"Why, _we_ live on the tenth floor, too," said Laddie d.i.c.kerson. "It's funny I never saw you."

"And it's funny I never saw you," replied Freddie. "Say, come and play with me, will you?"

"Sure I will! Well have lots of fun. I've got a train of cars."

"I've got a fire engine!" said Freddie, his eyes big with delight. "Oh, what fun we'll have!"

"Hush, Freddie dear," said his mother, for the little boy was talking rather loudly. "The curtain is going up again."

CHAPTER XIII

THE "RESCUE" OF FREDDIE

During the rest of the play the attention of Freddie and Flossie, who sat near him, was divided between Laddie, the new boy, and the things happening on the stage. Both were so jolly--the funny things the actors did and the chance of having a new playmate--that the two smaller Bobbsey twins did not know which was best.

"Don't you like this show?" asked Freddie of Laddie, when the curtain went down again.

"Yes. It's great! But I'm glad you're comin' to play with me," Laddie answered.

"So'm I," answered Freddie. "You're glad too, aren't you, Flossie?"

"Of course I am," said the little girl.

"Does _she_--_she_ play with you?" asked Laddie, nodding his head toward Freddie's little sister, as if in surprise.

"Of course she does. We have lots of fun. Why?"

"But she's a _girl!_"

"Of _course_ she's a girl," agreed Freddie. "She couldn't be my sister if she wasn't a _girl_. I've got another sister, too, but she's bigger. She's sitting on the end of the row. She plays with Bert and Flossie plays with me. We're two sets of twins. Don't you like girls?"

"Well, I don't know," said Laddie slowly. "I never played with 'em much.

I--I like your sister, though. She can play with us. Do you ever play store?"

"Lots of times," said Freddie. "We take some dirt for sugar, some little stones for eggs, some big stones for loaves of bread, clam sh.e.l.ls and pieces of tin for dishes--we have lots of fun like that. But we haven't had any fun that way since we came to New York. I fell on a turtle's back in the 'quarium, though, and had a ride."

"You did!" cried Laddie, so loudly that many persons in near-by seats turned to smile at him.

"Sure I did," answered Freddie. "I'll tell you about it. I was scared at first, but----"

"Laddie, dear, the curtain is going up and you had better keep quiet,"

said the elderly lady who was with the new boy.

"Is she your mother?" Freddie asked.

"No, she's my aunt. My mother is out in California, but she's comin' home soon, and I'm glad of it, though my aunt is awful nice."

"Hush!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, thinking it was Freddie talking, for now the last act had started. So the two little boys quieted down, each one resolved to start talking again as soon as he could.