"And with all these girls," growled Ralph Tingley. "Wish we'd started an hour ago."
"I don't know about starting at all," observed Bobbins. "Don't you see that the girls will give out before we're half-way there? We can't use snowshoes with the snow coming down like this. They clog too fast."
"Oh, they'll have to wade the same as we do," said Isadore.
"Yah! Wade! And us pulling this sled, too? I wish Preston had stayed with us. Don't you, Ralph?" asked his brother.
"Hush! don't let the girls hear you," was the whispered reply.
Already the girls were comparing notes in a group around the fire. Now Madge turned and shouted for them:
"Come here, boys! Don't be mumbling together there. We have an idea."
"If it's any good, let's have it," answered Tom, cheerfully.
"It is good. It was born of experience. Some of us got all the tramping in a blinding snowstorm that we wanted a year ago. Never again! Eh, girls?"
"Quite right, Madge," said Ralph. "It is foolish to run into danger. We are all right here——"