However, he was not going to give up without trying, and so, when they came to a little sheltered place, where the snow was not quite so deep, Bert stooped down.
“I’ll take you pickaback, Flossie,” he said.
“Oh, I like that!” laughed his sister, as she climbed up on her brother’s back.
Bert was not sure whether or not he was going to like it, but he said nothing. He had to shut his teeth tight to keep from crying out with pain as he straightened up with Flossie on his back, for her weight, small as she was, put too much weight on his injured leg. Flossie was quite “chunky” for her size, as Dinah was wont to say.
“Hold steady now, Flossie,” directed Bert, as he straightened up. “Put your arms around my neck.”
“I guess I know how to ride piggy-back!” laughed Flossie. She was not so tired now, when something like this happened to change her thoughts.
Bert staggered along through the snow with his sister on his back. Though he did not want to say so, his leg hurt him very much. But he tried not to limp, though Freddie at last noticed it, and asked:
“Have you got a stone in your shoe, Bert?”
“Oh, no, I—I just sprained it a little,” Bert answered in a low voice, so Flossie would not hear. For of course if she had known it hurt her brother to carry her she would not ask him to. But just then Flossie was reaching up to take hold of a branch of a tree as Bert passed beneath it. And, catching hold of it, Flossie, with a merry laugh, showered herself and Bert with snow that clung to the branch.
“Don’t, Flossie, dear!” Bert had to say. “There’s snow enough without pulling down any more. And we’ll get plenty if the clouds spill more flakes.”