Flossie and Freddie, as well as Nan and Bert, spent as much time on the coasting hill as their mother would let them.  After school every day they were out with their sleds, and on Saturday they were only home for their meals.

Bert and Charley Mason had made a bob-sled, by fastening two sleds together with a long plank.  This they covered with a piece of carpet.  On this eight or nine boys or girls could sit, while Bert or Charley steered the bob down the hill by a wheel fastened to the front sled.

On the back sled was a bell to warn other coasters out of the way, and sometimes, when there were not many on the hill, Freddie was allowed to sit on the rear sled and ring the bell.  He liked that.

Flossie and Freddie each had sleds of their own, and they rode down on them alone, on one side of the hill where the smaller boys and girls kept by themselves.

“For,” said Alice Boyd, “we don’t want to get run over by the big bob.”

“I guess not!” cried Johnnie Wilson.  “Some day we’ll make a bob ourselves, Freddie.”

“That’s what we will.”

The Bobbsey twins were coasting one day after school, when Freddie saw, walking up the hill, Tommy Todd, the fresh air boy.  Tommy looked tired, for he had just been doing some errands for Mr. Bobbsey.

“Hello, Tommy!” called Freddie.  “Why don’t you get your sled and have a coast?  It’s lots of fun.”

“Yes, I guess it is,” said Tommy, with a smile.

“Then go and get your sled,” said Freddie again.

“No, I don’t believe I will,” Tommy said.  And he said it in such a queer way that Nan Bobbsey whispered to Bert: 

“I don’t believe he has a sled, and he doesn’t want to say so.”

“I guess that’s right,” Bert replied.  “I’ll offer him a ride on our bob.”

“That will be nice,” Nan said.  “He can have my place,” for she had been coasting with her brother.

“Wouldn’t you like to ride down with us?” asked Bert, of Tommy.

“Wouldn’t I though?” cried Tommy, his eyes shining.  “Well, I guess I would!”

“Come on, then,” cried Bert.

“He can ride on my sled, too,” said Freddie.

“And on mine!” added Flossie.

“I guess your sleds are too small,” Bert said, with a smile, for Tommy was even bigger than Bert, and Bert could not fit on the sleds of his younger brother and sister any more.

“Thank you, just the same,” said Tommy to the little Bobbsey twins.  “I’ll go down on the big bob.  But I’ll pull your sleds up the hill for you.”

“That will be nice,” declared Flossie.  “I like riding down hill, but I don’t like walking up, and pulling my sled.”

Room was made for Tommy on the big bob-sled and he was soon gliding down the long hill, Bert steering.  Once or twice the smaller boys or girls, on their little sleds, would edge over toward that part of the hill where the big boys and girls, with their sleds or bob-sleds, were coasting.