"Toot! Toot!" cried Sunny Boy, trying to whistle, and not doing it
very well because it is difficult to run and pull a sled and whistle,
all at the same time.
"Nelson!" called Ruth, as they bumped her down another curbstone. "Oh,
Nelson! Say, Sunny Boy, wait a minute!"
"We can't stop! We have to get to the fire!" cried Nelson, panting.
"When we get to the fire we'll stop."
"But wait a minute!" begged Ruth, "I want to tell you something."
The two little boys pretended to kick up their heels and snort as they
had seen the fire horses do, and they would not stop. They galloped
and pranced and tried to run faster. At last they had to stop to get
their breath. Their cheeks were red and they were as warm as toast.
"Why--why--" stammered Sunny Boy, looking back at Ruth who sat on her
sled with her hands in her little fur muff. "Why, where are our sleds?"
"I dropped the ropes 'way back on Greene Street," replied Ruth calmly.
"I asked you to stop and you wouldn't."
"Well, you might have said you lost the sleds," said Nelson. "Then we
would have stopped. Gee, I hope nobody took 'em! We'll have to go
back."
Ruth got off her sled and walked back with the two boys. They found
the sleds on the sidewalk, exactly where a sudden jerk of the sled she
was on had made Ruth drop the ropes. Even Nelson could not scold his
sister when the sleds were so easily found, and as they went back
toward the hill he and Ruth and Sunny Boy took turns riding.
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