Part 34 (2/2)

”You cried when I busted your doll,” Freddie said.

”Well, that was a good while ago,” Flossie insisted, ”and I was only a little girl. I hardly ever cry since I've growed up.”

”No, I guess that's right,” Freddie said. ”She's 'bout as brave as me,”

he went on to the man.

”I'm sure she is, and I'm glad to hear that. You are both brave little tots, and I'm glad I found you. Whew!” he exclaimed, as the wind blew a cloud of snowflakes into his face, ”this storm is getting worse. I'll have some melted-snow tears on my own cheeks, I think.”

The strays kept on through the drifting snow, and, all the while, it was getting harder and harder for Flossie and Freddie to walk. The piles of snow were up to their knees in some places, and though the man easily forced his way through them, because he was big and strong, it was not so easy for the little Bobbsey twins to do so.

Pretty soon they came again to the rounded pile of snow that the two tots had mistaken for a little house. The white flakes had covered the hole Freddie had made with his stick.

”Let's stop and see if the muskrat is home yet,” proposed the little boy.

”What muskrat?” asked the man.

”The one that lives in here. I started to dig in so Flossie and I could get out of the storm, and the muskrat put his head out and looked at us.

I guess he was surprised.”

”We were surprised, too,” said Flossie. ”At first I thought it was a little bear.”

”Ha! Ha!” laughed the man. ”And so you dug into a muskrat's meadow-house to get out of the storm? Well, that was a good idea, but I guess if you had gone in the muskrats would have run out. But it was a good thing you found the shed, and I'm glad I also found it. We will soon be home, I hope.”

They lingered a moment, as Freddie wished to see if the muskrat would come out; but the creature was, very likely, away down deep in his house of sticks and mud, eating the sweet, tender roots of the plants he had stored away before Winter set in.

Once more the man led the Bobbsey twins onward.

Pretty soon Flossie began to lag behind. Her little feet went more and more slowly through the piles of snow, and once she choked back a sob.

She wanted to cry, but she had said she was brave and scarcely ever shed tears, and she was not going to do it now. Still, she was so tired and cold and altogether miserable that she did not know what to do. Freddie, too, was hardly able to keep on, but he would not give up.

At last, however, the man looked down at the two little ones, and he noticed that they were really too tired to go farther. He stopped and said:

”Come! this will never do. I must carry you a bit to rest your legs.

Wouldn't you like that?”

”Yes, I would,” answered Flossie. ”But you can't carry both of us; can you?”

”Well, I can try,” said the man. ”Let me think a minute, though. I think I will strap one of you on my back with my belt, and take the other in my arms in front. That will be the best way.”

”Oh, I want to ride on your back!” cried Flossie.

”No, little girl, I think it will be best for your brother to do that. I will carry you in my arms in front. That will rest you both.”

The man had a wide, big belt around his waist, and, taking this off, he put it over his shoulders, buckling it so that there was a loop hanging down his back. He put Freddie in this loop, astride, so the little boy could clasp his arms around the man's neck. Then, telling him to hold on tightly, and picking Flossie up in his arms, the man started off once more through the snow.

”This is fun!” cried Freddie, as he nestled his head down on the man's neck, keeping the snowflakes out of his eyes.

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