CHAPTER XVI
THE FIRST SNOW
There was noise enough from the howling wind to make almost any one believe the house really was tumbling down after the crash which seemed to have broken in the window of the boys' room.
"What's the matter in there, Bert?" called Mr. Bobbsey.
"The house is falling down!" cried Freddie. "I'm afraid, Daddy! I want to come in with you."
"Well, come along, sonny," called Mrs. Bobbsey.
Freddie ran out into the hall, where there was a dim light burning. Bert felt the cold wind blowing in on him through the broken window. He could also feel flakes of snow on his face.
"Something really is the matter in here, Dad!" he called. "I guess the house is all right, but our window is broken."
"Did you hear that, Flossie?" asked Nan of her little sister, who was sleeping with her. But they were both awake now. "The wind was so strong that it blew in Bert's window."
"Oh, what a terrible storm," whispered Flossie, covering her head with the clothes. "I don't like it."
By this time Bert had slipped on his bath robe and had gone out into the hall. His father was coming along and, having turned on the electric light in the room where the two boys slept, he saw what had happened.
Both large panes of glass in one window were broken. The shattered glass lay on the carpet and the snow was blowing in, for the white flakes were coming down fast now. And there were also a number of bricks on the floor.
"Oh! oh!" cried Freddie, who had come back with his father. "Some one threw bricks through our window. Was that Jack Frost?"
"I guess it was North Wind," answered Mr. Bobbsey.
"What happened?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
"The wind blew the top of the chimney off," replied her husband, "and some of the bricks crashed through Bert's window. Not much damage done, but the wind and snow are coming in."
"We can't sleep in our room!" cried Freddie. "What are we going to do?"
"I'll close the shutters and fasten a blanket over the window," said Mr. Bobbsey. "That will keep out nearly all the snow. What little wind blows in will not hurt—fresh air in the bedroom is a good thing."
Mr. Bobbsey closed the shutters, and tacked a blanket over the place where the glass was broken out of the window. Then, after he had taken away the bricks and swept up the broken glass so Bert and Freddie would not cut their feet on it, the boys went back to bed again.
It was some little time, though, before they could get to sleep, as the wind seemed to howl ever so much louder now that there was no glass in part of the window to keep out the sound.
"Is it snowing yet?" asked Freddie in a whisper of his brother, after they had been in bed for some time.
"I'll look," offered the older twin.
He slipped out of bed and to the window that had not been broken.
"Yes, it's snowing hard," he said.
"Good!" said Freddie. "We'll have some fine sleighrides."
It was quite cold in the boys' room, with the glass out of the window, for the wind blew through the blanket and shutters. But no more snow came in and the north wind did not knock any more bricks off the chimney. It was only a few loose ones that had come down, anyhow. Most of the chimney was all right.
It was the first snow-storm of the season, and when the Bobbsey twins awakened in the morning the ground was white and the flakes were still falling.
"Oh, what good times we'll have!" cried Nan.
"I'm glad I have my rubber boots!" said Flossie. "I can go wading in the deep drifts."
"Not until the storm stops some," said Mother Bobbsey.
It was Sunday, and the storm kept up all day so hard that the smaller Bobbsey twins could not go to Sunday school, though Nan and Bert managed to get there. And, as it was Sunday, the glass-man could not come to fix the broken window. But the shutters were kept closed, and with a blanket over the holes it was not so bad. Bert and Freddie liked to sleep in a cool room, and never had any heat turned on in their sleeping apartment. Their window was always open a little way, except on the very coldest nights.
The next day a man came to put the fallen bricks back on the chimney, and another man put new glass in the boys' window, so the damage from the storm was soon mended. The storm was over now, though it was cold, and the snow still covered the ground.
Then the Bobbsey twins had great sport. They got out their sleds and went coasting on the hill not far from their house, and when they were tired of this they played in the snow in their yard.
Flossie and Freddie rolled two big snow balls, so large that they were almost as big as the twins themselves, and finally the balls had in them so much snow that neither Freddie nor Flossie could push them around the yard.
"I'll take them and make them into a snow man for you," offered Bert. He put one snow ball on top of the other, Charley Mason helping him lift it, and then they made a third, smaller ball for the man's head.
Pieces of coal made eyes and nose for the snow man, and Nan gave Bert a bit of her red hair ribbon which, when fastened on the snow face, made it look exactly as if the snow man was sticking out his tongue at you.
His arms were made of long rolls of snow, and one was crossed on his chest, holding a broom. An old hat of Mr. Bobbsey's on top of the snow man's head made him look quite natural.
"Now you can finish the rest of him," said Bert to Flossie and Freddie. "Get some more pieces of coal, and put them down the front."
"What for?" Flossie asked.
"They will look like buttons on his overcoat," answered Bert.
"Oh, let's do it!" cried Freddie.
They did, and when they had finished putting a row of pieces of coal down the front of the snow man, they looked just as Bert had said they would—like buttons on a coat.
"Now let's make a little snow image, and he will be the snow man's little boy," said Freddie, after a bit.
"Oh, that will be nice!" cried Flossie.
The little twins rolled some smaller balls of snow, and, putting them together, as they had seen Bert do, they soon had a little snow boy, which stood beside the big snow man.
While the smaller Bobbsey twins were doing this Bert and Charley were making a snow fort in the back yard. And when it was finished some other boys came along and there was a snow battle. Bert and Charley, inside the fort, threw snowballs at the other boys outside. And every time they threw, Bert and Charley would dodge down behind the walls of the fort, so they were not hit very often.
But finally so many boys crowded around the snow fort, throwing balls from all sides at Bert and Charley, that they could not throw back fast enough, and they had to give up.
"Whoop! Come on, capture the fort!" cried Ned Barton.
Over the walls swarmed the boys, and Bert and Charley were taken "prisoners." Of course it was only in fun, and only soft snowballs, which hurt no one, were used, and all had a good time.
Then other boys took a turn inside the fort, while their chums threw snowballs at them from outside the walls, and the game went on this way, by turns.
"I'm glad it snowed," said Jimmie Heath.
"So am I," added Bert. "We can have such fun. I say, why not build a snow house?" he asked, after they had become tired of playing fort. "The snow is just right for packing."
"All right—a snow house!" cried the other boys. "We'll make one!"
They made a big pile of snow, using some of that which was in the walls of the fort. When the pile was large enough they began to dig out a place inside. This was to be the hollow part of the house, or the main room where they would stay.
Some boys worked at the outside walls, making them straight and smooth, while others took away the snow that Bert and Charlie dug from the inside.
The roof of the snow house was rounding, just like those of the snow houses made by the Eskimos in the arctic region. And finally, when Bert and Charley had the inside scooped out enough for more boys to get in, they all entered and sat about on some boxes which Bert found in the cellar.
The snow house was enjoyed by the boys and the Bobbsey twins for some days. But the sun was melting the snow a little every day, and one afternoon, when Flossie and Freddie came home from school early, and went out to play in the snow house, something happened.
Before long Flossie went to the kitchen to ask Dinah for some cookies to have a make-believe party in the snow house, and when the cook had given them to her, and the little girl was about to come out, she looked from the window and saw a strange sight.
Snap was playing about the yard with another dog. All of a sudden Snap gave a jump, right on top of the snow house, and he was so heavy, and the roof was so thin, that it caved in. Snap, with a bark, jumped away and ran off with the other dog, but Freddie was held fast by the pile of snow which fell on him, as he was inside.
"Oh! oh!" cried the little fellow, his voice muffled by the pile of snow. "Help me out! Help me out! I'm buried under the snow house! Help me out! Oh, Flossie!"