heir sisters. And
Freddie did not really intend to make Flossie feel bad.

"But we might have had a bigger ride if you hadn't sneezed," said Freddie,
after it was all over.

"Well, I couldn't help it," was what Flossie said. "And I guess you'd have
sneezed, too, if that fuzzy blanket kept tickling your nose; so there!"

It was in the police patrol automobile that Flossie sneezed. With Freddie
and Laddie, she was having a ride, you remember, the three children
having hidden themselves under the seats, wrapped up in blankets, when the
machine stood in front of the hotel while the policemen were at the fire.

For a time the two small Bobbsey twins and Laddie rode along in silence,
the policemen not knowing the children were at their very feet. And after
they had ridden about ten blocks, Flossie sneezed.

"A-ker-choo!" she cried, when a piece of the fuzzy blanket tickled her
nose. "A-ker-choo!"

"Hello! What's that?" asked one of the policemen in the automobile.

"Sounded like a sneeze," said another.

"Sure it was a sneeze," came from a third.

"Maybe it was Mike, the chauffeur," suggested the first officer.

"It didn't sound like him," ventured a policeman, close to where the
driver sat behind his wooden back-rest. "I say, Mike!" called the
policeman, "did you sneeze?"

"Nope! Haven't time for sneezes now," answered the chauffeur.

"Then it was back here in this automobile," went on the first policeman,
who was quite fat.

"Maybe it was a cat," suggested some one.

"Or a dog," added another.

Just then Freddie laughed--snickered would be more like what he did, I
suppose--and once more Flossie sneezed. And Laddie snickered, too. They
really could not help it any more than Flossie could help sneezing. For
the two boys thought it very funny to listen to what the policemen were
saying about Flossie's sneezes. And when the little girl's nose was
tickled the second time by the fuzzy blanket, and she sneezed again, and
the boys laughed or snickered--the policemen knew where the noises came
from.

"It's in here--right in our automobile!" said the fat policeman again.

"And it sounded right at my feet," added another.

Then all the policemen in the automobile leaned over and looked down. Even
Flossie was laughing now, for it all seemed so funny, and she was
wondering what her father and mother would say.

The laughter of the children made the blankets, under which they were
hiding, shake as though the wind w