hough, 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.

The last act of the show proved to be uproariously funny, and Freddie
laughed and laughed until he was in danger of rolling on the floor again.
But he was held fast in his seat, and so that danger was averted.

"Say, Freddie, wouldn't you like to be an actor man?" questioned Flossie,
during a brief interval in the play.

"Sure, I'm going to be an actor man when I grow up," responded her brother
quickly.

"But you're going to be a fireman too, ain't you?" queried his sister.

"Of course! I'm going to be an actor man and a fireman too," replied
Freddie. "I can act in a theatre when there aren't any fires to be put
out."

"But what would you do if you were all dressed up as an actor man when you
had to go out to ?" asked his sister.

"Oh, I'd just tell the people that I couldn't act any more, and then I'd
run right out and get my engine," answered Freddie simply.

"I guess I'd like to be an actor man too," put in Laddie. "I heard a big
boy tell once that they earn bushels and bushels of money."

"Sure, they do," answered Freddie. "They make a thousand dollars a minute,
I guess."

The play ended in a jolly lot of fun and music, and everybody was laughing
when the final curtain went down. Fathers and mothers, who had come to
bring their children, talked with one another, though they were strangers,
and it was because of this that Mrs. Bobbsey, when Freddie and Laddie
started to talk together again about the turtle ride, nodded and smiled at
the elderly lady with whom Laddie had come to the theatre.

"My little boy seems to have taken quite a fancy to yours," said the
twins' mother.

"Oh, he isn't my boy, though I love him as though he were," said this
lady. "Laddie is my sister-in-law's boy, but she is in California.