“That’s just like a girl,” said Fred Baldwin in disgust. “They always get scared.”
“Who always gets scared?” asked Stanley Reeves, one of the high school boys, hearing this sentence as he was passing the group on his way up hill.
“Why, I don’t think girls are all like that at all,” said Stanley, when he had heard Fred’s explanation. “I tell you what we’ll do—we’ll clear the hill and let the girls have a race. Any girl who is willing to steer her own sled may enter. Come on back to the top and we’ll settle this little matter.”
Fred Baldwin walked beside Bobby.
“Say, Bobby,” he said in an undertone. “Palmer and Bertrand and I want to see you about something. Can you come over tomorrow?”
“Is it about the fire?” asked Bobby in quick alarm. “Has Mr. Bennett said anything more?”
“Yes, he has,” admitted Fred. “I can’t tell you now. You come over to my house tomorrow morning.”
“You come over to our house,” suggested Bobby. “Bring the boys. I said I’d help the children start a snowman in the yard. We can go out in the garage and talk and nobody will hear us.”
Fred said they would come and then he hurried on to watch the coasting race. But Bobby’s pleasure in the sport was spoiled. He began to worry again about the fire in the carpenter shop. What had Mr. Bennett been saying?