But Nan did not have to give up her place at the window, for a gentleman
in the seat across the aisle arose and said to Mr. Bobbsey with a smile:

"Let your little girl take my seat near the window. I'm going into the
smoking car, and I get off at the next station. I know how I liked to
sit near a window, where I could see the horses and cows, when I was a
little boy."

"Oh, thank you!" exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey. "That is very kind of you."

So the change was made. Flossie had a seat near one window, and Freddie
near another, and Mr. Bobbsey sat with his "little fireman," while Mrs.
Bobbsey took the other half of the seat with the "little fat fairy." Nan
and Bert were together, and so there was peace at last. On rushed the
train taking the Bobbsey twins to New York; and from there they were to
go to Washington, where a strange adventure awaited them.

Nothing very much happened during the first part of the journey. Of
course, Flossie and Freddie wanted many drinks of water, as they always
did, and for a time they kept Bert busy going to the end of the car to
fill the drinking cup. But as it was winter and the weather was not
warm, the little twins did not want quite as much water as they would
have wanted had the traveling been done on a hot day in summer. And at
last Flossie and Freddie seemed to have had enough. They sat looking out
of the window and speaking now and then of the many things they saw.

"I counted ten horses," announced Freddie after a while. "They were
mostly on the road. I didn't see many horses in the fields."