GREAT PREPARATIONS
"Meg!" he called. "What do you think? Here's the old skating cap!"
"Skating cap?" repeated Meg stupidly.
"Yes! The skating cap we noticed when we were going to Mrs. Anson's,"
said Bobby. "Don't you remember? We must be clear on the other side
of the pond. That was the back road we followed."
Meg was too tired, with tramping through the deep snow, to care very
much about which road they had followed. She wanted to get home.
"My coat collar's all wet on my neck," she complained fretfully. "How
can we get over the pond, Bobby?"
"Have to walk it," said Bobby. "The snow's too thick to try to skate.
Give me your hand, and you won't slip."
Meg didn't slip, but half way across Bobby did, his feet going out from
under him without warning and sending him sprawling. It was so dark
now, for they had walked a long distance since leaving Mrs. Anson's
house, that Meg could hardly see him.
"Bobby! where are you?" she cried.
"Right here, don't step on me," giggled Bobby, scrambling to his feet
and making sure the eggs were unharmed. "That dark thing over there
must be the bank. Gee, doesn't that sound like Philip?"
A dog on the low bank had barked, and indeed it did sound like Philip.
"Why it is!" called Meg in delight, when they reached the edge of the
pond and began to climb up. "You dear, old Philip! Were you looking
for us?"
Philip wagged his stumpy tail and frisked about, trying his best to
tell the children that he had come out to look for them. Having Philip
with them to talk to and pet made the rest of the way home seem
shorter, and in less than fifteen minutes Meg and Bobby were shaking
the snow off their clothes in the Blossom front hall.
"Your mother has worried ever since the first snow flake," said Father
Blossom, helping Meg shake snow from her wet hair. "Sam and I should
have been out with a lantern if you had been much longer."
"We're starving," declared Bobby, handing over the eggs which he had
remembered to carry carefully all the time. "Isn't supper ready?"
Supper was ready and Meg and Bobby were so hungry that Father Blossom
pretended to be alarmed for fear there wasn't enough food in the house.
He said he was afraid Norah would come in and say there was no more
bread and that all the butter and baked potatoes were gone, and then
what would they do?
"Oh, I think they're only a little hungrier than usual," Aunt Polly
said, smiling.
Being lost in a snow storm didn't make either Bobby or Meg dislike the
snow and the first thing they thought of the next morning was the
weather.
"I hope it snowed all night," said Meg cheerfully. "I would like to
see snow up to the second-story windows, wouldn't you, Bobby?"
Bobby thought that would be fun, too, but when he mentioned it at the
breakfast table, no one seemed to like the idea.
"Just about as much snow as I care for, right now," declared Father
Blossom. "Our trucks are having trouble breaking the roads and this
fresh fall is discouraging for people who want to work. I've a good
mind to get out the old box sleigh and hire a horse and let Sam drive
to Fernwood for that freight consignment," he said to Mother Blossom.
But Meg's quick little brain understood at once.
"Daddy!" she cried, the loveliest rose color coming into her cheeks.
"Darling Daddy, can't we go in the box sleigh?"
Mother Blossom and Aunt Polly laughed, but Bobby looked up from his
oatmeal quickly and the twins began at once to ask if they could go,
too.
"Why, lambs, what about school?" Mother Blossom reminded them and that
helped Meg with her argument beautifully.
"It's a one-session day!" she said triumphantly. "The teachers have to
go to a lecture this afternoon. Oh, Mother, you went riding in a
sleigh when you were a little girl and I never did."
"And you've been in automobiles and when I was a little girl I never
did," Mother Blossom said gaily. "However, we'll ask Daddy."
Father Blossom looked at Meg, a twinkle in his eye.
"I was careless to mention 'sleigh'," he announced. "But I still think
Sam will have to go with a horse, instead of a foundry truck; and if
four children were ready and warmly dressed about quarter of one, I
shouldn't wonder if that sleigh stopped before this house."
My goodness, there was no more peace at the table after that. The
twins nearly went crazy and they wanted to put their leggings on at
once, while Bobby and Meg for some mysterious reason seemed to feel
that the sooner they got to school, the earlier they would be dismissed
and they hurried away a quarter of an hour before the usual time.
"You don't think it will hurt Dot, then?" said Mother Blossom as her
husband began to pull on his coat ready to go to the foundry.
"Oh, it's a sunny day and she is about over that cold," he answered.
"I think the fresh air will do her good."
Dot and Twaddles, who had heard the question and were listening
anxiously for the reply, sped away to the kitchen to tell Norah where
they were going.
You might have thought that the twins were setting out for the North
Pole, the way they started to get ready. They got out their rubbers
and brushed them carefully. They put their sweaters and scarfs and
mittens on one chair, their warm coats on another and their hats on the
table. Then they went out on the back porch and shook their leggings
and put them on still another chair. How Mother Blossom did laugh when
she saw everything spread out.
"We don't want to keep Sam waiting," explained Dot seriously. "Bobby
and Meg will have their things on, but Twaddles and I have a lot to do."
At that moment Twaddles was out in the barn asking the patient Sam
questions.
"Yes, your father told me you could go," said Sam. "Yes, the dog can
go too--the more the merrier, as far as I am concerned. No, you can't
drive--I have to keep my mind busy some way and driving is a good plan."
"Why are we going to Fernwood?" asked Twaddles. "Daddy said it was
about freight."
"And you don't see why we slight the Oak Hill station--is that it?" Sam
returned good-naturedly. "Well, Twaddles, this consignment got
side-tracked and it's some new office equipment your father wants right
away; it is quicker to drive over and get it, than have it re-routed."
Twaddles said "Oh," and immediately wanted to know how many miles it
was to Fernwood.
"Ten or twelve," said Sam. "And mind you dress warmly enough."
"Oh, I have lots to wear," Twaddles assured him. "This is my last year
coat, you know."
"But you want to remember the wind blows pretty hard on that back
road," said Sam. "If you think you're going to be the least bit
chilly, you'd better put plenty of newspapers around you."
"You think you can tease me, but you can't," Twaddles told him
scornfully. "Paper isn't warm."
"That's just where you make your mistake," declared Sam gravely.
"There is nothing warmer than paper--fold two or three newspapers under
your sweater and you can face the stiffest wind and be comfortable."
Twaddles looked unconvinced. But when he went back to the house and
asked Norah, she, too, said that newspapers kept out the cold.
"Say, Dot," said Twaddles to his twin two minutes later. "Sam and
Norah say newspapers will keep you warmer than--than anything. Let's
fix some."
Dot thought he was playing a joke on her, but when he finally made her
understand, she was willing to wear a newspaper or two and be cozy.
"Oh, we want more than one or two," said Twaddles, who liked a heaping
measure of everything. "Come on down cellar and you fix me and I'll
fix you."
Norah kept all the old newspapers in the cellar, in a corner, and every
three weeks a man came around and bought them.
"I don't know exactly how to do it, but you stand still and I'll tie
them on," directed Twaddles.
He had brought a ball of cord with him and now he went to work to wrap
the papers around the plump Dot. He opened them out wide and she held
them around her by using her arms till he had a quantity of the sheets
rolled about her. Then he took his string and wound that around her
several times and tied it in a strong knot.
"I don't see how I can get my sweater and coat on over this," objected
Dot when she was declared "finished."
"Oh, they'll go on all right," the cheerful Twaddles assured her. "Now
do me--put on lots of papers, so I won't be cold."
Dot obediently wrapped papers around him till he was twice his usual
chubby size and looked very odd indeed. Then she tied several
thicknesses of the cord about him and he too was ready for the long
drive.
"We rattle when we walk," said Twaddles, "but I guess that is all
right."
They found some pictures that interested them, in the papers remaining
on the floor and they stayed in the cellar till, to their surprise,
they heard quick feet running overhead and Meg's voice in the kitchen.
"It must be noon!" said Dot, "Come on, we have to hurry."
And as they started upstairs, Norah opened the door and called down:
"Lunch is ready--are you still playing in the cellar?"
Mother Blossom and Aunt Polly were just sitting down at the dining-room
table and Meg and Bobby, who had been upstairs to wash their hands,
were in the hall, when the twins marched through the kitchen and
slipped into their chairs. That is, they tried to sit down, but
something seemed to be wrong.
"What on earth--" began Aunt Polly, staring.
"My dears! What have you been doing?" Mother Blossom gasped.
And Norah glanced in from the kitchen murmuring:
"Is it entirely crazy they are at last?" while Meg and Bobby shouted
with laughter and turned Dot and Twaddles round and round to get a good
look at them.
"What have you been doing?" Mother Blossom repeated.
"Why, we're ready for the sleigh ride," explained Twaddles. "Paper is
awfully warm, Mother. Sam said so."
"It keeps the wind out," Dot added.
"You look like bundles of waste paper," Bobby chuckled. "You'd better
not go out on the street that way, or when the trash cart comes, the
man will pick you up and throw you on top."
"I do think you have more paper than you need," said Aunt Polly gently.
And though Twaddles and Dot did not want to admit it, they had already
begun to feel that way themselves. They could not sit down with any
comfort and when Bobby ran out in the hall and brought in Dot's coat,
she found she couldn't get it on at all.
"You'll be warm enough without the paper, dears," Mother Blossom said
positively. "Plenty warm and much more comfortable. Let Bobby and Meg
help you get unwrapped and then hurry and eat lunch before it is cold."
So Bobby and Meg untied the knots in the String and the papers slipped
to the floor. The twins breathed a sigh of relief and became
interested in the creamed potatoes.
"But don't forget to take the papers down to the cellar and put them
back on the pile, neatly," cautioned Mother Blossom.
Bobby and Meg helped Dot and Twaddles take back the papers and then it
was time to put on their coats and sweaters. Twaddles was just
stamping his feet into his rubbers--he always shook the house, Norah
declared, when he put on his rubbers--when the sound of jingling
sleighbells was heard outside.
"There's Sam! There's the sleigh!" shrieked the four little Blossoms,
scattering kisses between Mother Blossom and Aunt Polly and rushing for
the door.
"Good grief, is the house on fire?" Sam demanded as they came running
out of the house. "Where's Philip? I thought you wanted him to go."