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herself.
    The storm had really begun now, and the wind was sending heavy gusts of snow across the surface of the ice.
    Brian and Mart were waiting beside the fire, “Let’s call it a day,” Brian said, glancing at the leaden sky.
    Honey was coming across the ice with Bobby at her side, and the wind was blowing and pounding them unmercifully.
    “I only failed down once,” Bobby boasted as they came up to the fire.
    “Good for you, young feller!” Mart laughed. “Now how about heading for home?”
    “But I’m c-cold,” Bobby complained and huddled shivering at the fire.
    “Let him get warmed through first, and then we’ll come along after you,” Honey told the boys.
    “I’ll wait with you,” Trixie said hastily. She was glad to linger so the boys wouldn’t have a chance to notice that she was limping. She knew Mart would tease her about it.
    “Okay, but don’t wait too long.” Brian glanced skyward again. “This looks like a mean one.”
    “And stomp out the fire, squaws,” Mart added. “With this wind, one live spark could make a lot of animals homeless—and lifeless!”
    “To say nothing of Mr. Maypenny,” Brian said grimly. “So don’t forget.”
    Trixie’s knee was hurting and it made her cross. “Go on ahead. I guess we’re as good woodsmen as you two. We know what were doing.” She was trying to stand very straight, but if they didn’t hurry and start off, she just knew she was going to collapse.
    “Hey!” Mart pointed to her knee. “What’s with the tom dungarees? Did you ‘failed down‘ too?”
    “Go on, and stop asking silly questions!” Trixie gripped the slim trunk of a sapling beside her and held on. “You didn’t see the ice cracked anywhere, did you?”
    Brian laughed and drew Mart away with him. “See you later at the clubhouse, ladies.”
    As soon as they were out of sight, Trixie groaned and sat down on a flat rock, gingerly feeling the injured knee.
    “Why, you did fall, didn’t you?” Honey hurried to her. “Let me see.”
    Trixie had tucked her dungarees into the top of her boots, so they had to pull off the boot before they could roll up the pants leg and look at the scraped spot. Trixie fingered it gently, with a moan or two, and then decided that nothing was broken, after all. “Just a scrape,” she told Honey.
    “We’ll get the first-aid kit at the clubhouse and bandage you pretty,” Honey told her, “with some of that red, white, and blue adhesive tape.”
    “I want some heap-o’-tape, too. See?” Bobby held out a finger with a tiny scratch on it. “I hurt awful.”
    Trixie grinned at him as she rolled down her pants leg. “We’ll put some on the other hand, too, so you’ll balance!”
    Bobby’s eyes shone. “I love you, Trixie!” He flung his arms around Trixie’s neck, and they hugged each other.
    “But you must promise not to tell Mart or Brian that I skinned my knee,” Trixie warned him. “That’s our secret.”
    “I love see-cruds.” Bobby nodded happily. “I know a see-crud.”
    “What is it, doll?” Trixie kept her arm around him and winked at Honey, who was smiling at them both. “A big, big secret?”
    “Uh-huh.” Bobby nodded and looked serious. “It’s Miss Trask’s see-crud, an’ Celia’s, an’ it’s about Regan an Tom, an’—”
    Trixie put her free hand over his mouth to stop him. “Then you mustn’t tell it to me if it belongs to them.”
    Bobby pulled her hand away so he could speak, and backed off. “It’s somethin’ Regans bringing home from the city!” he shouted at Trixie. “It’s a big sperimen! What’s a sperimen, Honey?”
    “A sperimen?” Honey looked bewildered. “I never heard of a sperimen.”
    “Neither did I,” Trixie laughed. “There’s no such thing, Bobby.”
    Bobby’s face was red and his eyes blazed. “Is so!” he shouted at his sister. “Miss Trask says it’s a dan-gerish sperimen, so there! Maybe it’s a—a snake!” He was not happy with the idea and shivered