“I won’t try to go on the soft snow again,” he said as he sat down on a box and once more fastened the snowshoes to his feet.

“Do you mean to say you’re going to try it again?” asked Charley.

“I surely am,” answered Bert.  “I’m not going to give up, just because I got stuck once.  Why don’t you make you a pair of these shoes?  There are some more barrel staves, and I’ll get you the straps.”

“I believe I will,” Charley said, and set to work at once.  Then he and Bert walked together over the hard frozen snow.  As long as they stayed on this, where there was a crust, they were all right.  They did not go where the snow was soft, and so they got along very well.

Freddie saw what his brother and Charley were doing, and he cried out: 

“I want a pair of snowshoes, too!”

“You’re too little,” Bert said.  But later on he and Charley made Freddie a pair, cutting the long barrel staves in two pieces.  But Freddie did not find it as easy as his brother had found it, and he tripped and fell down in the snow, so the older boys had to pick him up.  Then the small twin gave up the use of snowshoes.

“I like riding down hill better,” he said.

Winter had now set in, with all its cold and snow, around Lakeport, and there were many days of fine coasting.  Flossie and Freddie stayed on the hill Bert had made for them in the yard, but Nan and Bert, with their friends, went to the big hill, and used the bob-sled.

Then came a thaw and the coasting was spoiled.  There were puddles of water all about, and one day coming home from school Freddie slipped and fell right into a puddle which was rather muddy.

“Oh, Freddie!” cried Flossie, who was walking with him.  “Your clothes are all spoiled!”

“Well, I—­I couldn’t help it,” Freddie said, looking down at the dripping mud and water.  “I didn’t see the slippery place.”

“You must hurry home as soon as you can, and change into dry things, Freddie,” said Nan, who was on the other side of the street with Ellen Moore and Nellie Parks.  Nan had seen her little brother fall.  “Run,” Nan went on, “I’ll hold your hand so you won’t fall again.”

Freddie gave his books to Flossie to carry, and he hurried on with Nan, running so he would be warmer and not take cold, for though the snow was melting it was still Winter.

As Nan and Freddie reached the house, they heard several persons talking in the parlor.

“Oh, there’s company!” cried Nan.  “They mustn’t see you, Freddie, looking like this.  I’ll take you up the back stairs and change your clothes myself, or get Dinah to.  Come on.”

But just as Nan and Freddie were about to slip past the parlor door Mrs. Bobbsey came out to see who had come in, and with her came a boy about Bert’s age.  At the sight of him Freddie cried: 

“Why, it isn’t company.  It’s cousin Harry!”

“Oh, Freddie!  What happened to you?” his mother asked.