The Bobbsey Twins at Home Part 33

"Maybe it's a stick house, with snow on the outside," Freddie said. "I'm going to dig a little deeper."

He did so, tossing aside the gra.s.s, sticks and dirt. Flossie was watching him, and suddenly the two children saw something moving down in the hole that Freddie had dug. Presently a furry nose was thrust out, and two bright, snapping eyes looked at them.

"Oh, see! What is it?" cried Flossie.

Freddie dropped his stick shovel, and stumbled back. Flossie went with him. The sharp, furry nose was thrust farther out, and then they could see that it was the head of some animal, looking at them from inside the snow-covered stick house.

"Some one lives there after all," whispered Flossie. "Is it a--a bear, Freddie? If it is, we'd better run."

"Bears don't live in houses like this," said her brother. "They sleep all winter in hollow logs."

"Well, what is it then?" Flossie questioned, "Will it come after us?"

But the little animal seemed satisfied to look out of the hole in its house to see who had done the mischief. Then it began pulling the sticks and gra.s.s back into place with its paws and jaws.

"Oh, I know what it is!" Freddie cried. "It's a muskrat. They live in these mounds on the meadows. Bert told me so. This one's house looked extra big because it was all covered with snow. There wouldn't be room for us inside there, Flossie."

"I'm glad of it," answered the little girl. "I wouldn't want to crawl in with a lot of rats."

"Muskrats are nice," Freddie said. "Bert told me so."

"Well, I don't like 'em!" declared Flossie. "Come on, Freddie. Let's get away from here. That muskrat might chase us for breaking in his house, though we didn't mean to do any harm. Come on, Freddie," and the two little ones went on once more.

The storm was growing worse, and it was getting dark now with the heavy clouds up above.

"Say, Freddie," said Flossie, after a bit, "I'm tired. Why don't we holler?"

"Holler?" asked Freddie, trying to turn his overcoat collar closer around his neck. "What do we want to holler for?"

"For help," answered Flossie. "Don't you know, in books and stories, every time people get lost they holler for help?"

"Oh, that's right," Freddie said. "I forgot about that. Well, we can holler."

The twins shouted as loudly as they could, but their voices were not very strong, and the wind was now blowing so hard that even if any one had been near at hand he could hardly have heard the little ones calling.

"Help! Help!" shouted Flossie and Freddie together several times.

They listened, but all they could hear was the howling of the wind and the swis.h.i.+ng of the snowflakes.

"Well, let's walk on some more," said Freddie, after a bit. "No use standing here."

"And it isn't much use walking on," returned Flossie; and her voice trembled. "We don't know where we're going."

Still she followed as Freddie trudged on.

"You walk behind me, Flossie," he said, "and that will keep some of the wind off you."

"Thank you, Freddie," was Flossie's answer. "But I'd rather walk by the side of you. You--you can hold my hand better then."

Hand in hand the twins went on. The wind seemed to blow all ways at once, and always in the faces of the tots. All at once, as Freddie made a stop to get his breath, he gave a shout.

"What's the matter?" asked Flossie. "Do you see something?"

"Yes, I guess it's a house," Freddie answered. "Look!"

He pointed to something that loomed up black in the midst of the cloud of snowflakes.

"I guess we'll be all right now," Flossie said. "We'll go in there and ask our way home."

But when they reached the black object they found that it was only an old shed which had been used to store some meadow hay. The door of the shed was shut, but Freddie tried to open it.

"We can go in there to get warm," he said, "if I can open it."

"I'll help you," said Flossie.

The two were struggling with the latch of the door when they saw some black object coming toward them out of the storm.

"Oh, maybe it's a cow," said Flossie.

"It's a man," cried Freddie, and so it proved. A tall, nice-looking man, his black beard white with snow, walked toward the children.

"Well, well!" he cried. "What does this mean? Such little tots out in this storm!"

"We're lost!" said Flossie.

The strange man laughed.

"Lost? So am I!" he cried. "It isn't the first time, either. I've been lost a whole lot worse than this. Now, as we're lost together, we'll see if we can't get found together. Here, we'll go in out of the storm a minute and you can tell me about yourselves."

With one pull of his strong arms he opened the shed door and went inside with Flossie and Freddie.

CHAPTER XXII

HAPPY DAYS

"This is better," said the man, as he closed the door to keep out the wind and snow. "This isn't exactly a warm house, but it will do until we get our breath. Now tell me how you came to be lost."

"We were out taking some things to a poor lady," said Freddie, "and she told us some nice stories."

"One was about a little red hen," put in Flossie.

"Yes," went on Freddie. "And when we saw it was snowing we came out in a hurry and took the wrong turn, I guess. We couldn't see any houses, and we hollered and n.o.body heard us, and then I saw this meadow gra.s.s and I knew where we were."

"So this is the meadows?" asked the strange man.