Four Little Blossoms and Their Winter Fun | Page 2

went out to the garage."
"'Tisn't a shoestep, 'tisn't a shoestep!" chanted Bobby, bent on teasing.
Meg's fair face flushed. She was exasperated.
"What is it, then?" she snapped.
Bobby measured the distance to the hall door.

"A rubberstep!" he shouted triumphantly. "Sam wore his rubbers!
Yah!"
"You think you're smart!" said Meg, half laughing and half frowning.
"Just you wait, Bobby Blossom!"
She darted for him, but Bobby was too quick. He dashed out into the
hall, Meg following, and Dot and Twaddles trailing after them.
Shrieking and shouting, the four raced into the dining-room, tore twice
around the table, then into the long living-room, where Meg managed
to corner Bobby under the old-fashioned square piano.
They had forgotten to be angry by this time, and after she had tickled
him till he begged for mercy--Bobby was extremely ticklish--they
crawled out again, disheveled and panting, and were ready for
something new.
"I'm going to get some snow," declared Dot, beginning to raise one of
the windows.
"Don't! You'll freeze Mother's plants," warned Meg. "Dot Blossom,
don't you dare open that window!"
For answer Dot gave a final push and the sash shot up and locked half
way.
"Oh, it's love-ly!" cried Dot, leaning out and scooping up a handful of
the beautiful, soft, white stuff. "Just like feathers, Meg."
"You'll be a feather if you don't come in," growled Bobby sternly.
"Look out!"
Dot, leaning out further to sweep the sill clean, had slipped and was
going headlong when Bobby grasped her skirts. He pulled her back,
unhurt, except for a scratch on her nose from a bit of the vine clinging
to the house wall and a ruffled disposition.
"You leave me alone!" she blazed. "You've hurt my knee."

"Want to fall on your head?" demanded Bobby, justly indignant. "All
right, if that's the way you feel about it, I'll give you something to be
mad about."
Before the surprised Dot could protest, he had seized her firmly around
the neck and, holding her tightly (Bobby was very sturdy for his seven
years), he proceeded to wash her face with a handful of snow he hastily
scooped from the window sill. Dot was furious, but, though she
struggled and squirmed, she could not get free.
"Now you'll be good," said Bobby, giving her a sounding kiss as he let
her go, for he was very fond of his headstrong little sister. "Want your
face washed, Twaddles?"
There was a sudden rush for the window and Meg and Twaddles and
Dot armed themselves with handfuls of snow. Dot made for Twaddles,
for she saw more chance of being able to capture him, and Bobby had
designs on Meg.
"Glory be! Where to now?" Norah's cry came from the pantry as four
pairs of stout shoes thundered through her kitchen and up the back
stairs. Norah, if the children had stopped long enough to hear, would
have told them that she had hurried home to start supper after seeing
the "episode" of the serial picture she was interested in at the motion
picture house.
Dot sounded like a husky young Indian as she hurled herself upon
Twaddles in the center of Aunt Polly's carefully made bed in the
guest-room and rubbed what was left of her handful of snow into his
eyes and mouth.
"My, it's wet," he sputtered. "Let go, Dot! Ow! you're standing on my
finger."
Meg had dashed into her mother's room, and, banging the door in
Bobby's face, turned the key. She was safe!
Bobby had no intention of being defeated. When he heard the key turn

in the door he looked about for a way to outwit Meg. He might be able
to climb through the transom if he could get a ladder or a chair.
His own room was next to his mother's, and, turning in there to get a
chair, he saw the window. It opened on the roof of the porch, as did the
windows in his mother's room. What could be simpler than to walk
along the roof of the porch, raise a window and get in? He could gather
up more snow, too, as he went along, and just wouldn't he wash Meg's
face for her!
"What you going to do?" asked Twaddles, as Bobby hoisted his
window.
Dot and Twaddles, tiring of their own fracas, had come in search of
Meg and Bobby.
"You wait and you'll see," answered Bobby mysteriously, putting one
leg over the sill.
Dot and Twaddles crowded into the open window to watch him as he
picked his way along. There was a linen closet between the two rooms,
so Bobby had some space to cover before he came to the windows of
the room where Meg was hiding.
"My goodness!" whispered that small girl to herself, parting