"I'll call mamma, Dinah," offered Nan. "She won't want you to leave us
now, when we have just started on this trip."
"Go on, honey lamb, call yo' ma," agreed the fat cook. "But I ain't
gwine t' stay on dish yeah boat no mo'! Dat's settled. Call yo' ma,
honey lamb, an' I'll tell her about it."
Mrs. Bobbsey had heard the excited voice of Dinah and had come down to
the dining-room of the houseboat to see what it was all about.
"What is it, Dinah?" she asked.
"It's ghostests, Mrs. Bobbsey--dat's what it is," said the cook.
"Ghostests what takes de sandwiches as fast as I make 'em--dat's de
trouble. I can't stay heah no mo'!"
Mrs. Bobbsey looked to Nan for an explanation. The little girl said:
"Dinah made a plate of sandwiches for our picnic---"
"Dat's right, for de excursnick," put in Dinah.
"And she left them on the table," went on Nan. "But when she went to
get a basket to put them in, and came back---"
"Dey was clean gone!" burst out the colored cook, finishing the story
for Nan. "An' ghostests took 'em; ob dat I'se shuah. So you'd bettah
look fo' anoder cook, Mrs. Bobbsey."
"Nonsense, Dinah! We can't let you go that way. It's all foolishness
to talk about ghosts. Probably the door was left open, and Snap might
have taken the sandwiches, though I never knew him to take anything
off the table.
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