“Where is daddy going?” asked Flossie, hearing the door shut.
“He’s going to bring back Bert and Nan—and the chestnuts,” said Mrs. Bobbsey, quickly. She knew the smaller twins would think more of the chestnuts than anything else, just at present.
“Oh, I like chestnuts!” cried Freddie. “I’m going to boast ’em an’ roil ’em!” he exclaimed.
“Listen to him, Mother!” laughed Flossie. “He said ‘boast an’ roil,’ an’ he meant roast an’ boil ’em, didn’t he?”
“I think he did,” said Mrs. Bobbsey, trying not to let the small twins see how worried she was.
“Oh, Freddie Bobbsey, look what you did!” suddenly cried Flossie. “You knocked over my steamboat!” For Freddie had toppled over the pile of blocks that Flossie had erected on the foot of her bed.
“Never mind. He didn’t mean to,” said Mrs. Bobbsey. “You can make another boat, Flossie.”
“An’ I’ll help,” offered Freddie.
Thus the two smaller Bobbsey twins amused themselves, with little thought of Bert and Nan except, perhaps, to wonder when they would come home with the chestnuts.
Meanwhile Mr. Bobbsey hurried through the fast-gathering darkness and the storm to the cabin of Jim Denton. Like the other men in the Christmas tree and lumber camp, the foreman had stopped work when the storm came with such blinding snow and a wind that turned bitter cold toward night.