e. "He might
have given you hy--hy_dro_pics."

"Flossie means hydrophobics," put in Freddie. "Ain't no hy_dro_pics, is
there, Bert?"

"Oh, Freddie, you mean hydrophobia!" burst out Nan, with a laugh.

"No, I mean hydrophobics," insisted the little fellow. "That's what
Dinah calls them anyway."

After the adventure on the ice boat matters ran smoothly with the
Bobbsey twins for two weeks and more. There was a great deal of snow and
as a consequence Freddie and Flossie stayed home from school most of the
time. Nan and Bert also remained home two separate days, and during
those days all of the children had great fun in the attic, where there
was a large storeroom, filled with all sort of things.

"Let us play theater," said Nan, who had been to several exhibitions
while at home and while visiting.

"All right," said Bert, falling in with the plan at once. "Let us play
Rip Van Winkle. I can be Rip and you can be the loving wife, and Flossie
and Freddie can be the children."

Across the storeroom a rope was placed and on this they hung a sliding
curtain, made out of a discarded blanket. Then at one side they arranged
chairs, and Nan and Flossie brought out their dolls to be the audience.

"They won't clap their hands very much," said Bert. "But then they won't
make any disturbance either."

The performance was a great success. It was their own version of Rip Van
Winkle, and Bert as old Rip did many funny things which caused Freddie
and Flossie to roar with laughter. Nan as the loving wife recited a
piece called "Doughnuts and Daisies," pretending to be working around
the kitchen in the meantime. The climax was reached when Bert tried to
imitate a thunderstorm in the mountains and pulled over a big trunk full
of old clothes and some window screens standing in a corner. The show
broke up in a hurry, and when Mrs. Bobbsey appeared on the scene,
wanting to know what the noise meant, all the actors and the doll
audience were out of sight.

But later, when mamma went below again, Bert and Nan sneaked back, and
put both the trunk and the screens in their proper places.

CHAPTER XIII

NAN'S FIRST CAKE-BAKING

"Let's!" cried Nan.

"Yes, let's!" echoed Flossie.

"I want to help too," put in Freddie, "Want to make a cake all by my own
self."

"Freddie can make a little cake while we make a big one," said Bert.

It was on an afternoon just a week before Christmas and Mrs. Bobbsey had
gone out to do some sh