skates and walked toward the ice-boat. Mr. Watson
smiled at them.

"I'm so sorry I nearly ran into you the other day," he said. "I did not
see you until almost the last minute. So I made up my mind the next time I
saw you on the lake I'd give you a ride. Come on, now, get aboard!"

"He talks just as if it was a real boat!" laughed Flossie, for, living
near the lake as they did, and often seeing boats at their father's lumber
dock, the Bobbsey twins knew something about water craft.

"Well, of course, this isn't as big as some boats," said Mr. Watson, "but
it will hold all of us, I think."

The children saw where there was a sort of platform, with raised sides,
built on the center of the crossed sticks, and on this platform were
spread some fur rugs and blankets.

Mr. Watson saw to it that the little children, especially, were well
wrapped, and then, telling them all to hold on, he let out the sail and
away flew the ice-boat down the frozen lake, fairly whizzing along.

"My! how fa-fa-fast we go!" gasped Nan, for really the wind seemed to take
away her breath.

"This sure _is_ sailing!" cried Bert, and then Nan noticed that her
brother was looking at different parts of the ice-boat, as if to find out
how it was made.

Flossie and Freddie were having lots of fun holding on to one another, and
also to the sides of the ice-boat, for the craft slid this way and that so
quickly, sometimes seeming to rise up in the air, that it was like being
on the back of a horse.

But the Bobbseys liked it, and the ride in the ice-boat came to an end all
too soon. With sparkling eyes, and red, glowing cheeks, the twins got out
close to their father's lumber dock, calling their thanks to Mr. Watson.

"I'll take you again, some time," he answered, as he sailed off down the
lake.

"Ah, ha! And so my little fat fireman had a ride in an ice-boat, did he?"
cried Mr. Bobbsey that night, when he came home from the office and heard
the story. "And how did my little fat fairy like it?" And he lifted up
first Freddie and then Flossie to kiss them. "Fat fireman" and "fat fairy"
were Mr. Bobbsey's pet names for the smaller twins. Bert and Nan had had
pet names when they were small, but they were too large for them now,
growing out of them as they grew out of their clothes.

"Oh, it was glorious!" cried Nan. "Sailing in an ice-boat must be like the
way it feels to be in an airship."

"I'm going up in an airship when I get big!" cried Fredd