The Bobbsey Twins and Baby May

“Just look at it rain!” exclaimed Nan Bobbsey to her brother Bert, as they were getting their coats, hats and umbrellas from the schoolroom closet.

“Crickity grasshoppers, I should say so!” cried Bert, crowding to the one window in the coatroom, already filled with boys and girls eager to escape from school. “It’s bouncing up from the sidewalk something awful!”

“Well, I know one thing,” announced Charlie Mason, pushing his face against the windowglass until his nose looked flat. “The rain isn’t going to bounce on my umbrella.”

“Why not?” asked Bert. “Aren’t you going to put your umbrella up in all this storm?”

“Nope!” answered Charlie, with a laugh and a shake of his head.

“Why not?” asked Nan curiously.

“’Cause I didn’t bring an umbrella, that’s why!” chuckled the boy.

“You’ll get soaked!” said Danny Rugg. “I haven’t got a very big umbrella, Charlie, but you can walk under it with me.”

“Thanks,” murmured Charlie.

“Danny’s getting real good, isn’t he, Bert?” asked Nan, as these two dark-haired Bobbsey twins made their way out of the coatroom and toward the main hall, which was filled with boys and girls eager to get home.

“Yes, Danny’s pretty good now,” agreed Bert. “And I’m glad of it. He always used to be fighting and quarreling. Say, Nan, it’s raining like cats and dogs!”

“Worse than that!” sighed Nan. “I hope Flossie and Freddie won’t get soaked.”

“Didn’t they bring umbrellas?” Bert wanted to know. “If they didn’t—”

“Oh, yes, they brought their little ones. I saw mother call them back and make them take them,” replied Nan Bobbsey. “But even a big umbrella isn’t much good in this storm. The wind blows terribly! I’m going to wait in the lower hall for Flossie and Freddie.”

“All right; I’ll wait with you,” offered Bert good-naturedly.

As the older Bobbsey twins stood there, watching the other boys and girls pass out, the rain now and then blew in through the open door.

A gust of wind would send the door swinging back after some child had tried to close it, and the water would streak across the floor, leaving little puddles.

“It’s a regular flood!” laughed Bert, as he and his sister waited for the smaller twins, who studied in another room, which had not yet been dismissed.

“There’ll be a lot of puddles on the way home,” remarked Nan.

“Say, do you know what I’m going to do?” asked Bert, as he saw Danny Rugg and Charlie Mason going out arm in arm, the better to fit under one small umbrella.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to take off my shoes and stockings, and I’ll wade home!” declared Bert.

“Oh, you are not!” cried Nan.

“Yes, I am!”

“I’ll tell mother if you do!”

“Pooh! Won’t she see me anyhow, if I wade home? I tell you it’s better to take off your shoes and stockings than to step in a lot of puddles and get soaked.”

“Well, I’m not going to do that!” said Nan. “It’s too cold!”

“I’m going to. I don’t care for the cold,” decided Bert, and then and there he sat down and took off his shoes and stockings, putting his stockings in his shoes and hanging his shoes around his neck by the laces.

“Now I’m all ready for a washout!” he cried.

“Here come Flossie and Freddie,” reported Nan. “Hurry, children,” she begged them. “We want to get home before the storm grows any worse.”

“Oh, I’m going to take off my shoes and stockings!” cried Freddie, as he saw what Bert had done.

“So’m I!” added Flossie, who always wanted to do what Freddie did.

“No! No!” cried Nan. “You mustn’t! There, see what you’ve started!” she added to Bert. “I knew they’d want to do this when they saw you!”

“Well, I can’t help that,” chuckled Bert. “Let ’em if they want to, I say!”

“No! No!” insisted Nan, as she saw the younger twins sitting down and beginning to tug at their shoe laces. “You mustn’t! Mother wouldn’t like you to go barefoot in this cold rain—it isn’t summer yet. Keep your shoes on!”

“But Bert has his off, and I want to wade in the puddles!” wailed Flossie.

“So do I!” echoed Freddie. “I want my shoes off!”

“I’ll be the ferryman and carry you over the puddles,” offered Bert, and this solved the problem, much to Nan’s delight.

Flossie and Freddie kept on their shoes and stockings, and followed their older brother and sister out into the storm. They were almost the last to leave the school, on account of the little dispute.

Down pelted the rain so hard that, as Nan had said, the umbrellas were of little use. The wind blew the wet drops under them. But the children rather enjoyed it, and Flossie and Freddie squealed with delight when Bert carried them across puddles at the gutters, the barefooted boy wading boldly through the muddy water.