"Where have you been?"
"What happened to you?"
"Was there an accident?"
"Did you get lost?"
"Did the ice-boat sink?"
It was Freddie and Flossie who asked the last two questions, and Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey who asked the others as Bert, Nan, Harry and Dorothy came into the farmhouse. Oh, how good it seemed after their battle in the darkness with the storm!
"The ice-boat couldn't go on account of the snow," explained Bert, "so we had to leave it and walk."
"And we got lost," added Nan. "Oh, it was terrible out there on the frozen lake!"
"Indeed it was," agreed Dorothy. "I never had such a time in all my life."
"It was too bad," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "You children should have come in the sled with us."