some one, for there was the sound of a scuffle and then a wail from Dot.

Mother Blossom dropped her sewing and went out into the hall.

"Children!" she cried warningly, leaning over the railing.

"Oh, Mother!" Bobby's voice was filled with protest. "The twins want
to go skating!"

"Can't we, Mother?" said Dot eagerly, looking up at her mother
imploringly. "Bobby and Meg always have all the fun. Can't we go?"

"They're too little," insisted Meg. "They haven't any skates, either.
And Dot will get her feet cold and want to come home right away."

"Won't either," scolded Dot. "I am too going! Can't I, Mother?"

"Well, suppose you go till four o'clock," proposed Mother Blossom, who
could always see both sides of a question. "If Bobby and Meg do not
get cold, they may stay till half-past four. And you'll have to
promise to do as Bobby says, twinnies, and keep out of the path of
older boys and girls. You mustn't spoil good fun for other people who
really know how to skate."

"I suppose you might as well tag along," conceded Bobby rather
ungraciously. "Nobody let us go skating when we were only four years
old, did they, Meg?"

"No, they didn't," agreed Meg.