Bert and Nan were awakened, and they, too, looked out on the night scene.  They were glad it was not their hotel which was on fire.  As for Flossie, she slept so soundly that she never knew a thing about it until the next morning.  And then when Freddie told her, and talked about it at the breakfast table, Flossie said: 

“I don’t care!  I think you’re real mean, Freddy Bobbsey, to have a fire all to yourself!”

“Oh, my dear! that isn’t nice to say,” said Mrs. Bobbsey.  “We thought it better to let you sleep.”

“Well, I wish I’d seen the fire,” said Flossie.  “I like to look at something that’s bright and shiny.”

“Then you’ll have a chance to see something like that this afternoon,” said Mr. Bobbsey to his little girl.

“Where?” asked all the Bobbsey twins at once, for when their father talked this way Nan and Bert were as eager as Flossie and Freddie.

“How would you all like to go to a theater show this afternoon—­to a matinee?” asked Mr. Bobbsey.

“Oh, lovely!” cried Flossie.

“Could Nell and Billy go?” asked Nan, kindly thinking of her little new friends.

“Yes, we’ll take the Martin children,” Mr. Bobbsey promised.

“And will there be some red fire in the theater show?” Flossie wanted to know.

“I think so,” said her father.  “It is a fairy play, about Cinderella, and some others like her, and I guess there will be plenty of bright lights and red fire.”

“Will there be a fire engine?” asked Freddie.  Of course you might have known, without my telling you, that it was Freddie who asked that question, But I thought I’d put his name down to make sure.

“I don’t know about there being a fire engine in the play,” said Mr. Bobbsey.  “I hardly think there will be one.  But the play will be very nice, I’m sure.”

“I think so, too,” said Mrs. Bobbsey.  “We’ll have a fine time.”

“Will there be any cowboys or Indians in it?” Bert asked.

“Well, hardly, I think,” his father answered.  “But if we don’t like the play, after we get there, we can come home,” he added, his eyes twinkling.

“Oh, Daddy!” cried all the Bobbsey twins at once.  And then, by the way their father smiled, they knew he was only joking.

“Oh, we’ll stay,” laughed Bert.

“Oh, it’s snowing!” cried Freddie as they left the breakfast table and went to sit in the main parlor of the hotel.  “It’s snowing, and we can have sleigh rides.”

“If it gets deep enough,” put in Bert.  “I guess it won’t be very deep here, will it, Daddy?”

“Well, sometimes there is quite a bit of snow in Washington,” answered Mr. Bobbsey.  “We’ll have to wait and see.”

“The snow won’t keep us from going to show in the theater; will it?” asked Nan.

“No,” her mother said.  “Nor to see the show given there,” she added, smiling.

After a visit to the Martins, to tell them of the treat in store, the tickets were purchased, the Bobbseys had dinner, and, in due time, the merry little party was at the theater.