low or cut hay.
Then the man who owns this forest said I might come here and chop
firewood, and I did. I built this cabin myself, and I've lived all alone
in it for many years."

This was so, for Jack had been in the woods from the time when Bert and
Nan were babies, so Flossie and Freddie had often heard their older
brother and sister say.

"Haven't you any folks?" asked Freddie.

"Well, I seem to remember that once I had a brother and a sister. But I
lost track of them, and they lost me, I guess; so where they are now, if
they're anywhere, I don't know. I'm all alone, I guess," and the
woodchopper's face was sad.

"Never mind! We'll come to see you," said Flossie, with a smile. "But now
maybe we'd better start home, Freddie. Papa and Mamma may be worried about
us."

"I'll take you home, if you've had enough to eat," said Uncle Jack.

"Oh, we've had plenty, thank you," said Freddie. "But it's a long way to
go home. If I could sail the ice-boat back----"

"I don't like that boat!" cried Flossie.

"How would you like to ride on a sled?" asked the woodchopper. "In a sled
drawn by a horse with jingling bells?"

"That would be _fine!_" cried Freddie, clapping his hands. "But where is
he--the horse, I mean?"

"Oh, out in my little stable. I built a small stable, as well as this
cabin, for I have to haul my wood into town to sell it. I'll get my
bobsled ready and tuck you in among the blankets that spilled from your
ice-boat. Then I'll drive you home."

Flossie and Freddie liked this plan, and were soon snugly tucked in among
their own robes, for the ice-boat had upset not far from the woodchopper's
cabin.

"Your folks will likely be worried about you," said Uncle Jack, "so I'll
get you home as fast as I can, though my horse isn't very speedy. He's
getting old, like myself."

"You don't _look_ old," said Flossie kindly.

"Well, I am. I'm old and full of pains and aches."

"Have you got a stomachache?" asked Flossie. "If you have my mother could
give you some peppermint."

"My pain is in my bones and back; peppermint isn't much good for that. I
guess I need to go to a hospital. But never mind me, I must look after you
children now."

Along through the snow jogged the woodcutter's horse, his bells jingling
as he hauled the sled over the road that led along the shore of the lake.

"What'll we do about Bert's ice-boat?" asked Flossie.

"I'll look after it until he comes for it," said Uncle Jack. "It isn't