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