eeing Freddie near her, doing the
same thing, she asked:

"What--what happened?"

"I guess I steered right up on shore instead of away from it," replied
Freddie. "I must have turned the handle the wrong way. Are you hurt,
Flossie?"

"Nope. Are you?"

"Nope. I hope the ice-boat isn't broken. Bert wouldn't like that. Let's go
and look."

As the children floundered out of the snow, which had been left from a
storm that had swept over the country before the lake had frozen, they
heard a voice calling to them. Looking in the direction of the woods, they
saw coming toward them an old man, wearing a big, ragged overcoat, a fur
cap and mittens, while over his shoulder was an axe.

"Oh! oh!" said Flossie in a low voice. "Who--who's that, Freddie?"

"Oh, I know him. That's Uncle Jack, the woodchopper. He'll help us get the
boat on the ice again, and I can sail it back home."

"Nope!" cried Flossie, shaking her flaxen curly head. "I'm never going to
ride in an ice-boat with you any more. Never! You go too fast, and stop
too quick. I'm going to _walk_ home!"

"What's the matter, children?" asked Uncle Jack, and he came plowing his
way through the snow. "Ah, your ice-boat is upset, I see! Well, you two
are pretty small potatoes to be out sailing alone. 'Most froze, too, I'll
warrant ye! Come on to my cabin. It's warm there, whatever else it is!"
and he helped Flossie and Freddie from the snowdrift.

"Thank you," said Flossie. "But we're not potatoes, Uncle Jack."

"Well, little peaches, then. Anyhow, your cheeks look like red apples,"
said the man, laughing.

CHAPTER V

GLORIOUS NEWS

"How did it all happen?" asked Uncle Jack, a little later, as he led
Flossie and Freddie along a path through the snow to his cabin in the
woods. "Why are you two out ice-boating alone?"

"The rest of 'em spilled out," answered Freddie; "and I upset Flossie and
me when I pulled on the wrong rope. But we're not hurt a bit. It was fun.
Wasn't it, Flossie?"

"Ye--yes, I--I guess so."

"Hum! You're part of the Bobbsey twins, aren't you?" asked the old
woodchopper, who made a living by cutting firewood and kindling wood in
the forest, where he lived by himself in a lonely cabin all the year
around.

"Yes, we're the littlest ones," answered Flossie. "Bert and Nan are
bigger, but they fell off, too."

"So falling from an ice-boat doesn't go by sizes," laughed the old man.

Then, taking turns, Flossie and Freddie told the sto