Flossie and Freddie Bobbsey were two of the kindest children in the world. They were fond of fun and of having a good time, but whenever their mother did work for the church at home, helping poor families, taking food to people who had but little, Freddie and Flossie always wanted to do their share. So did Bert and Nan; but as the older twins had to spend more time in school than did Flossie and Freddie, the two latter had more chances to help their mother.

More than once they had gone with her when she carried a basket of food or a bundle of clothing to some poor family in Lakeport. And now, in Cedar Camp, having heard their father say he was going to take food to Mrs. Bimby, Flossie and Freddie at once had an idea.

While Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey were out of the room, talking over the coming trip through the woods to look for Bert and Nan, as well as to take food to Mrs. Bimby, Freddie said to Flossie:

“Let’s go, too!”

“Daddy won’t let us,” Flossie answered.

“We—we’ll tag after him,” said Freddie in a whisper. “We can put on our rubber boots and our coats and mittens, and we can go behind him. He can’t hear us, ’cause there’s so much snow our boots won’t make any noise.”

“That’s so,” agreed Flossie. “And, oh, Freddie! I know what we can do.”

“What?”

“We can take Mrs. Bimby that bear robe. It’ll keep her warm, ’cause it’s so nice and soft!”

“So ’tis!” agreed Freddie. “We’ll take it, and something to eat, too.”

“We’ll not have to do that, Daddy and the other men are going to take her something to eat.”

“I meant something to eat for us,” Freddie said. “We ought to take a lunch with us, ’cause maybe we’ll get hungry in the woods.”

The younger Bobbsey twins had a feeling that if they were seen packing up a lunch for themselves, putting on their boots and outdoor garments, and taking the bear skin, they would be stopped. They felt sure they would not be allowed to go in search of Nan and Bert. And they were probably right.

So, as they had done more than once before, they said nothing of their plans, but went about them secretly and quietly. While their mother and Mrs. Baxter were packing two large baskets with food for Old Jim’s wife, and while Daddy Bobbsey was talking to the men about the coming trip through the snow-filled woods, Flossie and Freddie took their boots, coats, caps and mittens to the back door of the log cabin.

“We can slip out and put ’em on there when nobody is looking,” said Freddie.

“We’ve got to take the bear skin out, too,” Flossie remarked.

But when they tried to bundle the skin of the bear up so they could carry it, they found it so heavy and slippery to lift that they had to give it up.

“What’ll we do?” asked Flossie, as, after several trials she had to admit that the skin could not be carried. “Mrs. Bimby’ll be so disappointed!”

“We can tell her it’s here, and Mr. Jim can come and get it,” suggested Freddie.

“Oh, that’ll be nice!” his sister agreed. “We’ll leave the skin.”

How to pack up a lunch for themselves was also a hard matter. But, as it happened, Mrs. Bobbsey was so busy getting things ready for her husband and the other men that she did not pay much attention to what Flossie and Freddie did. She saw them moving about, now in the pantry and now in the kitchen and again stepping to the back door, but she did not dream they were getting ready to set off on a search by themselves.

However, this is just what Flossie and Freddie were going to do, and, after a while, they managed to pack into a pasteboard box what they thought would be lunch enough for them until they came back with Bert and Nan.

“Put in lots of cake,” whispered Freddie to Flossie, on one of the little girl’s trips to the pantry. “Cake tastes awful good in the woods.”

“I will,” Flossie whispered back. “And I got some pie, too!”

“Oh, that’s fine!” Freddie exclaimed. “Now we must slip out when they don’t see us.”

This the small Bobbsey twins managed to do. While Mr. Bobbsey, with Old Jim and Tom Case, was making ready to start on his searching expedition, to find and bring back Bert and Nan, as well as to take food to lonely Mrs. Bimby, Flossie and Freddie slipped quietly to the back door with their queer package of lunch.

They soon donned their boots, coats and caps, and with their little hands covered with warm, red mittens, they started off, keeping behind the cabin so they would not be seen by those in front who were getting ready to start on the main searching trip. It was snowing a little, but not nearly so hard as at first, and the wind was not so strong or cold.

“It’ll be fun!” said Flossie to Freddie.

“Lots of fun!” agreed her twin. “We’ll wait until daddy and Mr. Jim and Mr. Case get in the woods, and then we’ll follow ’em. They won’t send us back!”

“No,” agreed Flossie, “I don’t guess they will.”

The plan of the little Bobbsey twins was to follow their father on the search. They did not want to go through the woods alone, even though it was now daylight, though the sun did not shine because of the snow clouds.

And so, a little while after Mr. Bobbsey and the two men started away from the log cabin, Flossie and Freddie set out on their own little searching party. Mrs. Bobbsey and Mrs. Baxter were so busy “cleaning up” after the men left that they gave no thought to the children for a time.

“There they go!” whispered Flossie to Freddie, as, hiding behind a woodpile, they saw their father, Mr. Bimby and Tom Case start off.

“Wait a little, and then we’ll go after ’em,” advised Freddie.

As soon as the main party had marched off along the trail that led through the woods toward the chestnut grove that Bert and Nan had set out to visit two days before, the small Bobbsey twins set forth. They went around behind a clump of trees so they would not be seen from the cabin.

Flossie and Freddie expected soon to catch up to their father, but the snow was so deep and the men traveled so fast that, after trudging along for half an hour, Freddie and his sister had not yet come within sight of the others.

“Do you s’pose they ran away from us?” asked Flossie, as she stopped a moment to rest.

“Course not,” answered Freddie. “They don’t even know we’re comin’ after ’em.”

“That’s so,” Flossie said. “Well, anyhow, I hope we don’t get lost.”

“I do, too,” agreed Freddie. “But we have something to eat, anyhow,” and he patted the box of lunch he carried.

The children looked around them. They were in a lonely part of the woods, a place they had never been before, but they felt sure they would soon catch up to their father. They had been following the tracks in the snow left by the men who had gone to find Bert and Nan and take food to Mrs. Bimby.

Suddenly, however, there came a harder flurry of snow, and for a time Flossie and Freddie could not see very well. And when the little squall, as sudden storms are called, had passed, the two Bobbsey twins found they had wandered off to one side of the trail.

No longer could they see the footprints of their father and the others in the snow. They had nothing to guide them!

“Freddie! Look!” cried Flossie, “Where’s the path?” She called her father’s snow-track a “path.”

“Why, it—it’s gone!” Freddie had to admit.

And then, as the two little children stood in the lonely snow-filled woods, they heard, near a bush, a noise that made them suddenly afraid.

It was a growl that they heard!