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.

“I like it, too,” Flossie said, cuddling up in the man’s strong arms.

“Are we too heavy for you?” asked Freddie. “’Cause if we are you only need to carry us a little way, until we’re rested, and then we can walk.”

“But I’m not rested yet,” Flossie said quickly.  She liked to be carried this way.  It made her think of the time when her father used to carry her when she was a little tot.

“Don’t be afraid.  I can carry you for some time yet,” the man said with a laugh, as he walked on through the drifts.

“You can put me down now, if you like,” Freddie said, after a bit.  “I’m kinder cold, and if I walk I’ll be warmer.”

“Well, perhaps you will,” the man replied.

“And I can walk, too,” added Flossie.  “My legs are all right now.”

“I don’t believe you will have to walk much farther,” went on the man.  “I think the path is near here, and then it will be easier for you.”

The man soon found the path, though it was not easy to see, and, walking along that, they came to a road.  A little later the Bobbsey twins and the man heard a bell ringing.

“That’s a trolley-car!” cried the man.  “Now we’re all right.”

And so they were.  The trolley was one that ran between Belleville and Lakeport, and a little later the two children and the kind man were sitting in the warm electric car, speeding toward their home.