"They couldn't push a railroad train," said Flossie.

"They could too!" cried her little brother, quickly.

"They could not. Could they, papa?"

"What?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, absent-mindedly.

"Could an elephant push a railroad train?" asked Flossie.

"I know they could," declared Freddie. "Couldn't they, papa?"

"Now, children, don't argue. Look out of the windows," advised
their mother.

And while the circus men are trying to catch the escaped animals
I will tell you something more about the Bobbseys, and about the
other books, before this one, relating to their doings.

Mr. Richard Bobbsey, and his wife Mary, the parents of the Bobbsey
twins, lived in an Eastern city called Lakeport, on Lake Metoka.
Mr. Bobbsey was in the lumber business, and the yard, with its
great piles of logs and boards, was near the lake, on which the
twins often went in boats. There was also a river running into the
lake, not far from the saw mill.

Their house was about a quarter of a mile away from the lumber yard,
on a fashionable street, and about it was a large lawn, while in
the back Sam Johnson, the colored man of all work, and the husband
of Dinah, had a fine garden. The Bobbseys had many vegetables from