“That’s what we’re doing,” answered Bert. “That’s why I wanted to get a letter—to hear if my father and mother were all right.”
“Oh, I guess they’re all right, Bert,” said Mr. Anderson kindly when he had heard the story of the trip Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey had to take. “It’s only that the mails are late. Probably your folks have written you, but you won’t get the letters for a few days yet.”
“Nan and I wrote to them, telling about Sam and Dinah going away,” explained Bert. “But I guess our letters didn’t get to them, either.”
“No,” agreed the man at the letter window. “I don’t believe they did. And you can’t telegraph or telephone them, either, Bert, on account of the wires being down. But I guess things will be better in a few days.”
“I hope so,” murmured Bert, as he turned away from the window. Others were coming in to make inquiries. “Nan will feel sad about not getting a letter,” thought the boy.
However, there was nothing he could do. So he left the post-office and went to the store to get the things Nan had said were needed—a loaf of bread, some condensed milk—since the milkman had left no bottles—and half a dozen other things.
Now that the snow had stopped, at least for a time, the streets of Lakeport were filling with people who had not been able to get out of their houses during the storm. Many others besides the Bobbsey twins needed to buy things to eat.
“Well, you’ve got quite a bundle to carry, Bert,” remarked Mr. Fink, the grocer, as he did up the things the boy had bought. “Think you can manage it all?”
“Oh, yes,” was the answer. “I’ve got to get the stuff home. Don’t want to go hungry, you know. And it looks as if it was going to snow some more.”
On his way home with the bundle of food, Bert saw Danny Rugg just ahead of him. Danny also had his arms filled with bundles, for he, too, had been to the store. Seeing Bert, Danny stopped and grinned.