The next day a man came to put the fallen bricks back on the chimney, and another man put new glass in the boys’ window, so the damage from the storm was soon mended.  The storm was over now, though it was cold, and the snow still covered the ground.

Then the Bobbsey twins had great sport.  They got out their sleds and went coasting on the hill not far from their house, and when they were tired of this they played in the snow in their yard.

Flossie and Freddie rolled two big snow balls, so large that they were almost as big as the twins themselves, and finally the balls had in them so much snow that neither Freddie nor Flossie could push them around the yard.

“I’ll take them and make them into a snow man for you,” offered Bert.  He put one snow ball on top of the other, Charley Mason helping him lift it, and then they made a third, smaller ball for the man’s head.

Pieces of coal made eyes and nose for the snow man, and Nan gave Bert a bit of her red hair ribbon which, when fastened on the snow face, made it look exactly as if the snow man was sticking out his tongue at you.

His arms were made of long rolls of snow, and one was crossed on his chest, holding a broom.  An old hat of Mr. Bobbsey’s on top of the snow man’s head made him look quite natural.

“Now you can finish the rest of him,” said Bert to Flossie and Freddie.  “Get some more pieces of coal, and put them down the front.”

“What for?” Flossie asked.

“They will look like buttons on his overcoat,” answered Bert.

“Oh, let’s do it!” cried Freddie.

They did, and when they had finished putting a row of pieces of coal down the front of the snow man, they looked just as Bert had said they would—­like buttons on a coat.

“Now let’s make a little snow image, and he will be the snow man’s little boy,” said Freddie, after a bit.

“Oh, that will be nice!” cried Flossie.

The little twins rolled some smaller balls of snow, and, putting them together, as they had seen Bert do, they soon had a little snow boy, which stood beside the big snow man.

While the smaller Bobbsey twins were doing this Bert and Charley were making a snow fort in the back yard.  And when it was finished some other boys came along and there was a snow battle.  Bert and Charley, inside the fort, threw snowballs at the other boys outside.  And every time they threw, Bert and Charley would dodge down behind the walls of the fort, so they were not hit very often.

But finally so many boys crowded around the snow fort, throwing balls from all sides at Bert and Charley, that they could not throw back fast enough, and they had to give up.

“Whoop!  Come on, capture the fort!” cried Ned Barton.

Over the walls swarmed the boys, and Bert and Charley were taken “prisoners.”  Of course it was only in fun, and only soft snowballs, which hurt no one, were used, and all had a good time.