Bert one day, as he and his brother and sisters went home from school together, kicking their way through the fallen leaves. "We'll go coasting, make snow men and snow forts and go skating."
"I'm going to have skates this year. Mother said so," cried Freddie.
"You're too little to skate," declared Bert.
"Oh, I'll show him how, and hold him up," offered Nan. "Skating is fun."
"It isn't any fun to fall in the ice water though," Flossie said.
"Well, we won't go skating until the ice is good and thick," said Bert, "then we won't break through and fall in."
When the children reached the house they found Mrs. Bobbsey and Dinah busy taking the furniture out of the parlor, and piling it in the sitting room and dining room.
"What's the matter?" asked Bert in surprise. "Are we going to move?"
"No. But your father has sent up a man to varnish the parlor floor, and we have to get the chairs and things out of his way," said Mrs. Bobbsey.
