along nicely, and he
took hold of his twin sister's hand, and away they went gliding over the
smooth ice much to their combined delight.

"Some day I am going to learn how to do fancy skating," said Bert. "The
Dutch roll, and spread the eagle, and all that."

"There is Mr. Gifford," said Nan. "Let us watch him."

The gentleman mentioned was a fine skater and had once won a medal for
making fancy figures on the ice. They watched him for a long while and
so did many of the others present.

"It's beautiful to skate like that," cried Nan, when they skated away.
"It's just like knowing how to dance everything."

"Only better," said Bert, who did not care for dancing at all.

Presently Nan found some girls to skate with and then Bert went off
among the boys. The girls played tag and had great fun, shrieking at the
top of their lungs as first one was "it" and then another. It was hard
work for Nan to catch the older girls, who could skate better, but easy
enough to catch those of her own age and experience on the ice.

The boys played tag, too, and "snapped the whip," as it is termed. All
of the boys would join hands in a long line and then skate off as fast
as they could. Then the boy on one end, called the snapper, would stop
and pull the others around in a big curve. This would make the boys on
the end of the line skate very fast, and sometimes they would go down,
to roll over and over on the ice. Once Bert was at the end and down he
went, to slide a long distance, when he bumped into a gentleman who was
skating backwards and over went the man with a crash that could be heard
a long distance off.

"Hi! you young rascal!" roared the man, trying to scramble up. "What do
you mean by bowling me over like that?"

"Excuse me, but I didn't mean to do it," answered Bert, and lost no time
in getting out of the gentleman's way. The gentleman was very angry and
left the ice, grumbling loudly to himself.

Down near the lower end of Mr. Bobbsey's lumber yard some young men were
building an ice-boat. Bert and Charley Mason watched this work with
interest. "Let us make an ice-boat," said Charley. "I can get an old
bed-sheet for a sail, if you will get your father to give you the
lumber."

"I'll try," answered Bert, and it was agreed that the ice-boat should be
built during the following week, after school.

CHAPTER IX

FREDDIE LOSES HIMSELF

Christmas was now but four weeks away, and the stores of Lakeport had
th