But he laughed and shouted, pretending that he was a soldier fighting the storm, and he floundered out into the drifts and down toward Dr. Martin’s house. There were very few persons out in the tempest, which was, in fact, a blizzard. Bert saw no one whom he knew, but a man who was tramping his way through the snow called to the boy:
“Quite a storm!”
“That’s right,” panted Bert, stopping to get his breath.
“More wires down than before,” the man went on. “And a lot of trains are stuck in the snow.”
Bert felt a sinking feeling in his heart, and he hoped his father and mother had not started back from Uncle Rossiter’s only to be snowed-in. Bert decided he would say nothing to Nan about what this man had told him.
Floundering on through the snow, falling down once, but getting up quickly again with a laugh, Bert at last reached the doctor’s house and rang the bell. A maid let him in the office.
“The doctor will see you in a few minutes,” she said.
“I don’t want him to see me,” replied Bert. “I’m not sick. It’s Aunt Sallie Pry. She’s staying at our house and she has the lumbago.”
The maid smiled at the boy, and the doctor, who happened to be in the next room, opened the door, for Bert had spoken rather loudly.
“Oh, Bert, it’s you, is it?” asked Dr. Martin, for he knew the Bobbsey twins. “What’s the trouble at your house?”