CHAPTERXVI
Waiting until some of the men had moved aside from the delivery window, Bert made his way to it. Mr. Anderson knew the Bobbsey boy, for in the summer Bert had often gone to his father’s lumber office, and, more than once, had been allowed to go down to the post-office for the mail.
“No letters for the lumber company to-day, Bert,” the postmaster said, with a smile. “There were a couple yesterday, but Mr. Jones got them.”
“I didn’t come for the office mail, Mr. Anderson,” explained the boy. “But the postman hasn’t been at our house for two or three days, and I thought maybe there’d be some mail here for my sister or me.”
“I’ll look, but I don’t believe there is any,Bert,” said Mr. Anderson. “None of the men went out yesterday, on account of the heavy storm.”
He went back to the long table where the mail was sorted, but when he again approached the window there were no letters in his hands.
“Sorry, Bert, nothing for you folks,” said Mr. Anderson. “You see everything is upset. The trains are late, and some are stuck in deep snow up further north, I hear. And the worst of it is that a lot of wires have been blown down so we can’t get any word. Tell your mother the man will go out with mail as soon as any comes in.”
“I can’t tell my mother that,” stated Bert.
“Why not? Is she sick?”
“No, but Mrs. Pry is. She came to keep house for us while mother and dad went away. Then she got sick, and Dinah and Sam went away, and——”
“You don’t mean to tell me you Bobbsey twins are keeping house all by yourselves!” interrupted the postmaster in astonishment.
“That’s what we’re doing,” answered Bert.“That’s why I wanted to get a letter—to hear if my father and mother were all right.”
“Oh, I guess they’re all right, Bert,” said Mr. Anderson kindly when he had heard the story of the trip Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey had to take. “It’s only that the mails are late. Probably your folks have written you, but you won’t get the letters for a few days yet.”
“Nan and I wrote to them, telling about Sam and Dinah going away,” explained Bert. “But I guess our letters didn’t get to them, either.”
“No,” agreed the man at the letter window. “I don’t believe they did. And you can’t telegraph or telephone them, either, Bert, on account of the wires being down. But I guess things will be better in a few days.”
“I hope so,” murmured Bert, as he turned away from the window. Others were coming in to make inquiries. “Nan will feel sad about not getting a letter,” thought the boy.
However, there was nothing he could do. So he left the post-office and went to the store to get the things Nan had said were needed—a loaf of bread, some condensed milk—sincethe milkman had left no bottles—and half a dozen other things.
Now that the snow had stopped, at least for a time, the streets of Lakeport were filling with people who had not been able to get out of their houses during the storm. Many others besides the Bobbsey twins needed to buy things to eat.
“Well, you’ve got quite a bundle to carry, Bert,” remarked Mr. Fink, the grocer, as he did up the things the boy had bought. “Think you can manage it all?”
“Oh, yes,” was the answer. “I’ve got to get the stuff home. Don’t want to go hungry, you know. And it looks as if it was going to snow some more.”
On his way home with the bundle of food, Bert saw Danny Rugg just ahead of him. Danny also had his arms filled with bundles, for he, too, had been to the store. Seeing Bert, Danny stopped and grinned.
“Plenty of snow for a snowball fight now,” Danny said.
“I haven’t any time to fight,” answeredBert, in no very friendly tones. He more than half suspected Danny had suggested to Sam the idea that Bert had broken the church window.
“Aren’t mad, are you?” Danny wanted to know.
Bert was going to answer and say he was not exactly “mad” when Sam, coming along the street, called to Danny and the latter hastened off to join his crony.
“I’d just like to find out why you went into the church that time I fell down the trapdoor,” mused Bert, as he struggled along, for it was hard going. “It had something to do with the broken window, I’m sure.”
The wind was rising again and it was very cold. The gale whipped snowflakes from the ground into Bert’s face with stinging force.
“Maybe we’ll have another blizzard,” he thought. “It sure does look like more snow,” and he glanced up at the gray clouds.
Bert reached home at last and found Nan trying to amuse Flossie and Freddie in the house. It was hard work, for the small twins,now that they could look out and see that the fall of snow had stopped, at least for a time, wanted to go outside and play in the drifts.
“I think it will be all right for them to come out with me for a little while,” suggested Bert, when he saw how Flossie and Freddie were “pestering” Nan. “They can put on their boots, dress warmly, and I’ll take care of them.”
“Well, all right,” agreed Nan. “But they mustn’t stay out too long. Mother wouldn’t let them if she were here.” At the mention of her absent mother Nan felt her eyes filling with tears, so she quickly turned her head away.
“Hurray! Hurray! We can go out!” shouted Freddie, capering about the room like a pony in a pasture.
“And I’m going to make snowballs!” declared Flossie. “But don’t you dare wash my face, Freddie Bobbsey!”
“All right, I won’t,” he promised, on his good behaviour for a time, lest Nan change her mind about letting him out.
“Did you get any letters from daddy ormother?” asked Nan, as Bert put his bundles on the kitchen table.
“No mail, and the wires are down,” he said. “But I guess we’ll get a letter to-morrow.”
“I hope so,” sighed Nan. “Did you get Mrs. Pry’s liniment?”
“Yes, here it is.”
“I’m glad you got it,” went on Nan. “She’s asked for it two or three times. Her lumbago seems to be getting worse.”
“Maybe we’ll have to get the doctor for her,” suggested Bert.
“Oh, I hope not,” exclaimed Nan. “If she got very sick, I don’t know how I could wait on her and look after the house.”
“It would be hard,” agreed Bert. “But maybe everything will be all right. Now I’ll take Flossie and Freddie out for a while. It will make them sleep better to-night to have some fresh air.”
He and the small twins had some jolly fun in the snow. Well wrapped up and with rubber boots which kept their feet and legs dry, Flossie and Freddie raced about, made snowballsand tossed them to and fro, and even began to make a snow man.
But it was so cold that the snow did not pack well, or stick together. Snow must be a trifle wet to roll big balls or build snow forts and construct snow men to guard them.
However, Flossie and Freddie had lots of fun, and Bert was a good brother. He let them throw snowballs at him, though it must be said that Flossie and Freddie did not hit him often, for they could not throw very straight. And when they did hit Bert the balls did not hurt.
Then Bert pretended he was a horse and raced about with them through the drifts until the merry laughs of Flossie and Freddie could be heard by Nan who was taking Mrs. Pry up some more tea, toast, and preserves.
“Well, I’m glad they’re having a good time,” sighed Nan. “They’ll be easier to manage after they’ve had some fun.”
Poor Nan was not having much fun herself. But she was a brave girl, and she knew she and Bert must keep house until motherand daddy returned, or at least until Sam or Dinah got back.
No word had been received from either of the faithful colored servants since they had gone. But this would not have been surprising, even if the mail trains had been running since neither of them knew much about writing letters.
Panting and laughing, with rosy-red cheeks, Flossie and Freddie came into the house with Bert, stamping and brushing the snow off their feet on the side porch, from which Bert had shoveled most of the big drift.
“Oh, we had lots of fun!” panted Freddie.
“Lots of fun!” echoed Flossie.
“We’re going out again after we eat,” went on Freddie.
“I’ll see about that,” was all Nan would promise.
And after she had given the small twins something to eat and had gotten something for herself and Bert, the latter, going to the window, exclaimed:
“It’s snowing again!”
And so it was.
“Oh, can’t we go out?” cried Flossie.
“Just for a little while!” begged Freddie, for they seemed to know that with the white flakes again falling their outdoor fun would end.
“I’ll take them out for just a little while,” said Bert. “They’ll be easier to manage when they get good and tired,” he whispered to Nan.
So, once again, the small twins were bundled up, and Bert took them out in the snow. They played about for a time, but the storm grew worse quickly, the wind being cold and the snowflakes stinging the faces of Flossie and Freddie, so that soon they were glad to go in again.
Just as Bert had thought, letting Flossie and Freddie play out of doors made the small twins sleepy, and they were ready for bed much earlier than usual that evening.
Bert and Nan were also tired, so about ten o’clock the Bobbsey house was quiet and dark, every one being in bed. The last thing Bert remembered hearing was the howl of thewind outside and the tinkle of snowflakes against the windows.
“It’s storming hard again,” he said to himself.
And the first thing he heard, when he awakened in the dim, gray light of morning, was still the noise of the storm.
“It kept up all night,” thought Bert. “My, but the snow will be deep! And how that wind blows! It shakes the house!”
He was aware of a furious blast howling outside. And really, at times, the house trembled.
“Oh, Bert!” called Nan from her room. “Are you awake?”
“Yes, I’m going to get right up.”
“Oh, it’s a terrible storm, isn’t it?”
“Yes, I guess it’s pretty bad,” admitted her brother. “But we’ll be all right.”
Hardly had he spoken than the wind howled louder than ever, and to the ears of the Bobbsey twins came the sound of a great crash. It was the noise of breaking wood and shattered glass.
“What’s that?” cried Nan.