So the other children, long after the twins had gone reluctantly up to bed, paired off and argued about their choice of an animal and changed their minds and finally decided.  Then they were measured by Aunt Polly, and it was announced that three rehearsals a week would be held till the Saturday set for the fair.  Mother Blossom brought in a plate of cookies and a basket of apples, and after these were eaten it was time to go home.

With all the preparations for the play and fair, school went on as usual.  The children sometimes thought that it might be interrupted for a week or two without loss to any one, but the school committee never took kindly to this idea.  They were sure that nothing in the wide world could be of more importance than regular attendance at school.

“I know enough now,” grumbled Bobby one morning, scowling at his oatmeal.

“We could stay at home and play with the animal bags,” said Meg, who never tired of trying on the muslin cases that so quickly transformed them into different animals.  “It’s really snowing ever so hard, Mother.”

“Not half as hard as it often has when you have plowed cheerfully through it,” Mother Blossom reminded her.  “Come, Bobby, finish your oatmeal.  Norah has your lunches packed.”

Dot and Twaddles stared at the two older children in astonishment.  They wanted to go to school with all their hearts, and the idea that any one could tire of that magical place, where chalk and blackboards and goldfish and geography globes mingled in riotous profusion, had never entered their busy minds.

“It’s an awful long walk,” mourned Bobby.

“I’ll take you in the car,” said Father Blossom quickly.  “Hurry now, and get your things on.  I think there’s been too much staying up till nine o’clock lately, Mother.”

“I think so, too,” agreed Mother Blossom.  “We’ll go back to eight o’clock bedtime beginning with to-night.  What is it, Dot?”

“Can we go, too?” urged Dot.  “Sam will bring us back.”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake!” frowned Bobby, pulling on his rubber boots and stamping in them to make sure they were well on.  “Why do you always want to tag along every place we go?”

Dot looked hurt, and Bobby was really ashamed of himself.  He wasn’t cross very often, but nothing seemed to go right this morning.  No one said anything, but Mother Blossom sent the twins out into the kitchen on some errand, and then the car came around and Meg and Bobby and Father Blossom tramped through the snow and climbed in under the snug curtains.  Bobby would have felt better if some one had scolded him.

“Guess we’re going to have enough snow this winter to make up for last,” remarked Sam Layton cheerfully.  He was not cross, and he was blissfully unconscious that any one else had been.  “Fill-Up and me is getting kind of tired of clearing off walks every single morning,” he went on, giving the dog his nickname.