Then other boys took a turn inside the fort, while their chums threw snowballs at them from outside the walls, and the game went on this way, by turns.

“I’m glad it snowed,” said Jimmie Heath.

“So am I,” added Bert.  “We can have such fun.  I say, why not build a snow house?” he asked, after they had become tired of playing fort.  “The snow is just right for packing.”

“All right—­a snow house!” cried the other boys.  “We’ll make one!”

They made a big pile of snow, using some of that which was in the walls of the fort.  When the pile was large enough they began to dig out a place inside.  This was to be the hollow part of the house, or the main room where they would stay.

Some boys worked at the outside walls, making them straight and smooth, while others took away the snow that Bert and Charlie dug from the inside.

The roof of the snow house was rounding, just like those of the snow houses made by the Eskimos in the arctic region.  And finally, when Bert and Charley had the inside scooped out enough for more boys to get in, they all entered and sat about on some boxes which Bert found in the cellar.

The snow house was enjoyed by the boys and the Bobbsey twins for some days.  But the sun was melting the snow a little every day, and one afternoon, when Flossie and Freddie came home from school early, and went out to play in the snow house, something happened.

Before long Flossie went to the kitchen to ask Dinah for some cookies to have a make-believe party in the snow house, and when the cook had given them to her, and the little girl was about to come out, she looked from the window and saw a strange sight.

Snap was playing about the yard with another dog.  All of a sudden Snap gave a jump, right on top of the snow house, and he was so heavy, and the roof was so thin, that it caved in.  Snap, with a bark, jumped away and ran off with the other dog, but Freddie was held fast by the pile of snow which fell on him, as he was inside.

“Oh! oh!” cried the little fellow, his voice muffled by the pile of snow.  “Help me out!  Help me out!  I’m buried under the snow house!  Help me out!  Oh, Flossie!”

CHAPTER XVII

ON THE HILL

“Dinah!  Dinah!” called Flossie, dropping to the floor the cookies she had gotten to take out to the snow house.  “Oh, Dinah!  Look at Freddie!”

Dinah hurried to the window.

“Freddie?” she asked.  “Freddie?  Where am Freddie?  I can’t see him, so how kin I look at him, Flossie lamb?”

“Oh, you can’t see him!” wailed Flossie, “But you can hear him, can’t you?”

Dinah listened.

“Help me out!  Help me out!” Freddie was crying.  His voice was rather faint, for he was under the snow, and it sounded as though he were down in the cellar.  But though the snow roof had fallen in when Snap jumped on it, there was a sort of little cave, or hollow around his head so Freddie could call out.