CHAPTER IV
THE DOG SLEIGH
LOOKING sad and mysterious again, Mr. Carford stopped speaking and walked off.
Bert shook his head as he watched the man’s retreating figure. “I can’t make him out,” he mused. “He acts so nice and friendly, then all at once he seems to close up.” Still puzzled by Mr. Carford’s strange behavior, Bert returned to his classroom.
When school was over, he and Charlie Mason walked out together. As they passed the principal’s office, Charlie pointed to a group of boys filing into the room. “They’re the same ones who were in Danny’s gang yesterday at the snow fort,” he said.
“Every one of them,” Bert agreed. “I’m glad they’re owning up.”
Charlie chuckled. “It must have been a lot of work, making that snowball,” he said. “And just to get even with you! I’m afraid Danny’ll be a long time getting over this, Bert. Better be on the lookout for more mean tricks.”
Nan caught up to Bert a couple of blocks from home and listened eagerly to his account of the scene in the school office.
“When I thanked Mr. Carford for coming to my rescue,” Bert concluded, “he said he was always glad to do a favor for a Bobbsey. But the strange thing was that he looked so odd when he said it.”
“That is queer,” Nan agreed. “I can’t wait for Dad to come home so we can learn what this Snow Lodge mystery really is all about. Maybe there’s some way we can help Mr. Carford.”
Meanwhile Freddie and Flossie, already home from school, were playing in the snow in front of their house. “I know what!” the little girl exclaimed. “Let’s make our own sleigh. We can tie a box on your sled, Freddie—”
“And Snap can be the horse!” her twin interrupted. “What’ll we use for harness and reins?”
Flossie’s brow furrowed. “Well,” she said thoughtfully, “we can use Snap’s leash for the harness, and—I know! My long hair ribbons will make pretty reins.”
“Swell!” her brother replied. “You get your ribbons and I’ll find the sled and the box and the leash.” He started toward the house, calling, “Snap! Here, boy!”
Around a corner of the house bounded the dog, who had once belonged to a circus. Seeing his young master and mistress, Snap barked joyously and walked toward them on his hind feet along a shoveled path. Freddie patted him lovingly while Flossie hurried inside the house.
Fifteen minutes later, everything was ready for the sleigh trip. Freddie had torn the top and front side from a large paper packing box and tied it onto his sled. Flossie helped her twin make the final adjustments on the harness. At last Freddie straightened and said:
“That should do it. Did you tie those ribbons together real tight?” At Flossie’s nod, he added, “Well, climb aboard!”
Freddie sat in the back of the box with Flossie in front. Each child took one of the ribbon reins.
“Giddap!” they cried together, and Snap, with one questioning glance back at his drivers, started off, giving an excited bark.
“It works!” Flossie cried triumphantly as the homemade sleigh skimmed over the snow.
Eyes dancing and cheeks a bright pink from the wind, both twins yelled, “Faster! Faster!” to the obliging Snap.
“Those ribbons had better hold!” Freddie yelled as Snap hesitated, turned in a wide arc, and dashed pell-mell up a side street.
“Hey!” the little boy cried. “I thought we were driving this sleigh! Where’s Snap going?”
Flossie, breathless from their sudden speed, pointed ahead and gasped, “Nan and Bert!”
Some distance up the street the older twins stood staring in surprise at the dog and sled racing toward them.
“It’s Snap!” Bert exclaimed. “Whoa, boy! Slow down!” he called. “Pull back on the reins, Freddie and Flossie!”
The younger children obeyed, and Snap’s pace slowed to a walk. But when he reached Bert and Nan, the dog leaped up and put his paws on the boy’s shoulders.
As the animal rose, so did the front of the sled! The reins broke, and Freddie and Flossie tumbled out head over heels!
Laughing and sputtering from the snow in their faces, the young twins scrambled to their feet and righted the sleigh.
“Don’t you know that’s not the way to pull a sleigh?” Flossie said, pretending to scold Snap, who stood looking up at her, his tail wagging furiously.
“Poor Snap is tired out,” Nan said, smiling as she leaned down to pat the dog. “Why don’t you two come on home with us and let him rest?”
Obligingly, Freddie and Flossie removed the reins from the dog’s collar. Then, pulling the sled, both fell into step with Bert and Nan.
“What happened about the frozen snowball on the school steps?” Freddie asked eagerly.
Bert gave him a full account of the scene in the principal’s office. Freddie clenched his fists. “I’d like to get even with Danny Rugg!” he cried.
Flossie also looked indignant. “It was mean of Mr. Tetlow to think you did it, Bert!”
“Well, my knife was found under the snowball so I can’t blame him for believing I had something to do with it. And he did give me a chance to clear myself.” Bert defended the principal.
“That’s right,” Nan agreed. “Wasn’t it lucky that Mr. Carford came by just at that moment?”
“I like Mr. Carford,” Freddie said. “He’s a real Santa Claus.”
By this time the children had reached the Bobbsey house. Their mother met them at the door, and again Bert had to tell about the huge snowball and Mr. Carford’s help.
Mrs. Bobbsey put one arm around Bert. “Well,” she said, “I’m glad everything turned out all right. Danny is certainly a mischief maker.”
“Why are you wearing your heavy sweater, Mommy?” Flossie asked. “Are you going out?”
Mrs. Bobbsey frowned. “No, dear, but the furnace isn’t giving us much heat. Dinah is staying near the oven in the kitchen, and I had to put on this sweater.”
“Ooh, it is cold!” Nan exclaimed, shivering as she removed her heavy coat.
“I think you’d all better put on sweaters,” their mother said. “I don’t want you taking cold —especially just before Christmas.”
“What are we going to do about Christmas, Mother?” Nan asked eagerly.
Mrs. Bobbsey gave an anxious sigh. “I don’t know! I’ve called all the hotels in town and they’re booked solid for the holidays. The only thing they can do is to call us if there are any cancellations.”
“I guess we’re out of luck,” Bert said sadly.
“Your father will be home tomorrow,” Mrs. Bobbsey reminded the twins. “I’m sure he’ll know what to do.”
“I’ll be so glad to see Daddy,” Flossie said. “It seems as if he’d been away for years and years!”
“I have an idea about what we can do now to get warmer,” Nan spoke up.
“What?” they all chorused.
“Let’s play hide and seek. I’ll be ‘it.’ ”
They all looked at Mrs. Bobbsey. “May we, Mommy?” Flossie asked, her eyes dancing in anticipation.
“Yes, if you don’t upset things too much,” their mother agreed. Then, relieved that the children were in better spirits, she settled down on the sofa with some mending.
Nan hid her eyes in her arm and began to count slowly. The other three children tiptoed carefully from the room.
“Ninety-nine, one hundred!” Nan cried. “Here I come, ready or not!”
She ran out into the hall and flung open the door of the coat closet. No one was there. Then as she started into the dining room, Flossie raced down the stairs and into the living room, crying, “Home free!”
Now Nan began to climb the stairs. There was a giggle and Freddie ran from behind the tall clock in the lower hall. “I’m free, too!” he called, as he gained the living-room sofa.
Laughing, Nan went on up the stairs, and a few minutes later Freddie and Flossie heard her cry, “I see you, Bert!” as the boy emerged from the clothes closet in Nan and Flossie’s bedroom.
When the children had gathered in the living room again, panting from their game, Mrs. Bobbsey looked up. “I was so worried about the furnace,” she explained, “that I forgot to tell you something, Bert and Nan. You have letters on the mantel.”
“Hooray!” Bert exclaimed. “I hope mine’s from Harry. He hasn’t written to me for a long time!” Harry was the son of the children’s Uncle Daniel Bobbsey. The Lakeport Bobbseys had had many good times at their cousin Harry’s home, Meadowbrook Farm.
“Maybe mine’s from Dorothy Minturn!” Nan said eagerly. Cousin Dorothy lived at Ocean Cliff. Her mother was Mrs. Bobbsey’s sister, and the young cousins were all good friends.
In another minute the older twins had opened their letters, and each was busily reading. Bert spoke first. “Listen to this, from Harry:
“Just between you and me, Bert, I’m going to have a terrible Christmas. Mother and Dad and I are going to visit old Aunt Martha for the holidays. She must be at least a hundred, and there aren’t any boys around to play with. I’ll be glad when we get home again!”
Mrs. Bobbsey looked sympathetic. “Poor Harry!” she said. “I agree it won’t be much fun for him.”
Nan looked up from her letter. “Dorothy is having the same trouble,” she announced. “Uncle William and Aunt Emily are taking her to Florida for the holidays. Dorothy says she has lots of swimming in the summer and wants to spend the Christmas holidays where there’s snow. But there doesn’t seem to be any hope of that!”
“It looks,” Bert observed wryly, “as if all the Bobbsey children are in the same boat. No place to spend Christmas that we like!”
“Wouldn’t it be great,” Nan said, “if we could all be together some place?” The other twins nodded and grinned.
“It would be a cousin Christmas,” Flossie observed.
