oom after Mr.
Tetlow departed. And it was noticed that Danny and some of his
particular friends looked around with rather frightened faces, over
their shoulders, as they talked among themselves. What they said could
not be heard, for they spoke in whispers.

"I hope you weren't one of those boys, Bert," said Nan, as she passed
her brother on the way home from school that afternoon. "If you were--"

"You needn't worry," he said, with a smile. "I'm not ready to smoke
yet."

"Nor ever, I hope," said Nan, as she turned up her little nose.
"It--it smells so."

Nothing more was heard of the smoking matter for several days, and it
was about forgotten, when something else came to claim the attention of
the Bobbsey twins and their friends.

It was toward the close of school one afternoon, when all the pupils
were wishing the hands of the clock would point to letting-out time,
that Nan, looking from the window, and away from her arithmetic book,
saw a few white flakes of snow sifting lazily down. At once she was
all attention, and her lesson was forgotten.

"Oh!" she thought, "it's snowing! And it looks as if it would be a big
storm. Oh, I'm so glad!"

Nan did not know all the trouble and misery a big snow storm can cause,
so she may be forgiven for wishing for one. She only saw the side of
it that meant fun for her and her friends.

The flakes were coming down faster now, and there was about them
something which seemed to tell that this storm would be more than a
mere flurry or squall, and that it would keep up for some time, making
big drifts.

But now a number of other pupils in the room had noticed the storm, and
eyes were out of doors rather than on books. The teacher saw that she
was not getting the attention of her class, and she understood the
reason.

"Now, boys and girls," she said gently, "you can have a good time in
the snow after you get out of here. So please give attention to your
lessons for a few minutes more. Then you will be finished. Nan
Bobbsey, you may go to the board and do the third example."

But Nan was thinking so much of the fun she might have riding down
hill, or snowballing with her friends, that she got the example wrong,
and had to go to her seat. Nor was Bert any more successful.

Bert was busy thinking about putting a bell and a steering wheel on the
new bob he and Charley had made, and when he was asked how many times
two and a half went into ten he answered: "Three