r. A
funny look came over his face.

"What's the matter?" asked Charley, who was watching him.

"I--I'm stuck!" cried Bert. "I can't get my feet up! The staves are
caught under the snow, and I can't move! Come and pull me out!"

CHAPTER XIX

THROUGH THE ICE

Charley was laughing so hard at the queer look on Bert's face, and at
the funny way in which Bert stood in the snow, that, at first, he did
not make a move to go to his chum's help. Then Bert cried again:

"I am stuck I tell you, Charley! Come on and help me. I can't lift my
feet."

"Can't you, really?" Charley asked.

"No. The front edges of the barrel staves have slipped under the snow
and it's packed on them so I can't raise them."

"All right, I'll help you," said Charley, still laughing. He waded out
to where Bert was stuck. Charley's feet sank down deep in the soft snow.
"I ought to have a pair of those shoes myself," he said, floundering
along.

"Well, don't stop to make them now," said Bert. "Help me first."

But even with Charley's help it was impossible to pull up Bert's feet
with the queer wooden shoes on. They had got stuck sideways in the deep
snow. Finally Charley said.

"Oh, take 'em off, Bert! Loosen the straps and then you can pull your
feet free, and lift up the barrel staves afterward."

"I guess that is the only way," Bert agreed, and he did it. Once his
feet were clear of the staves, it was easy enough to raise them up and
then he could wade back to the barn, carrying the staves.

"I won't try to go on the soft snow again," he said as he sat down on a
box and once more fastened the snowshoes to his feet.

"Do you mean to say you're going to try it again?" asked Charley.

"I surely am," answered Bert. "I'm not going to give up, just because I
got stuck once. Why don't you make you a pair of these shoes? There are
some more barrel staves, and I'll get you the straps."

"I believe I will," Charley said, and set to work at once. Then he and
Bert walked together over the hard frozen snow. As long as they stayed
on this, where there was a crust, they were all right. They did not go
where the snow was soft, and so they got along very well.

Freddie saw what his brother and Charley were doing, and he cried out:

"I want a pair of snowshoes, too!"

"You're too little," Bert said. But later on he and Charley made Freddie
a pair, cutting the long barrel staves in two pieces. But Freddie did
not find it as easy as his brothe