“It’ll be fun!” said Flossie to Freddie.
“Lots of fun!” agreed her twin. “We’ll wait until daddy and Mr. Jim and Mr. Case get in the woods, and then we’ll follow ’em. They won’t send us back!”
“No,” agreed Flossie, “I don’t guess they will.”
The plan of the little Bobbsey twins was to follow their father on the search. They did not want to go through the woods alone, even though it was now daylight, though the sun did not shine because of the snow clouds.
And so, a little while after Mr. Bobbsey and the two men started away from the log cabin, Flossie and Freddie set out on their own little searching party. Mrs. Bobbsey and Mrs. Baxter were so busy “cleaning up” after the men left that they gave no thought to the children for a time.
“There they go!” whispered Flossie to Freddie, as, hiding behind a woodpile, they saw their father, Mr. Bimby and Tom Case start off.
“Wait a little, and then we’ll go after ’em,” advised Freddie.
As soon as the main party had marched off along the trail that led through the woods toward the chestnut grove that Bert and Nan had set out to visit two days before, the small Bobbsey twins set forth. They went around behind a clump of trees so they would not be seen from the cabin.
Flossie and Freddie expected soon to catch up to their father, but the snow was so deep and the men traveled so fast that, after trudging along for half an hour, Freddie and his sister had not yet come within sight of the others.
“Do you s’pose they ran away from us?” asked Flossie, as she stopped a moment to rest.