The Bobbsey Twins in a Great City | Page 6

it a secret?" asked Nan, eagerly.
"Sort of."
"Oh, please tell me!"
"Not now. Come on, skate faster!"
Bert and Nan skated on ahead, knowing that Flossie and Freddie would
try to keep up with them, and so would get home more quickly. But
they did not leave the smaller twins too far behind.
A little later the Bobbseys were safe at home. Tommy Todd went to his
grandmother's house, and Flossie and Freddie took turns giving their
mother an account of their escape from the ice-boat.
"Was there really any danger?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey of Bert.
"Well, maybe, just a little. But I guess Mr. Watson would have stopped
in time. He's a good ice-boat sailor."
"But don't let Flossie and Freddie get so far away from you another
time. They might have been hurt."
Bert promised to look well after his little sister and brother, and then,
having asked his mother if she wanted anything from the store, he said
he was going down to his father's lumberyard.
"What for?" asked Nan, as she saw him leaving. "Is it about the
secret?"
"Partly," answered Bert with a laugh.
Two or three days later the Bobbseys were again out skating on the ice,

Nan and Bert keeping close to Freddie and Flossie. They had not been
long gliding about when Freddie suddenly called:
"Oh, here comes that ice-boat again!"
"Surely enough, it is!" added Nan. "Oh, we must skate toward shore!
Come on!"
"No need to do that," replied Bert. "It isn't coming fast, and Mr. Watson
sees us."
"He's waving his hand at us!" cried Flossie. "I guess he wants to give us
a ride. Come on, Freddie!"
"Here! Wait a minute!" called Bert "Don't get into any more danger.
But I believe he is going to stop," he went on, as the ice-boat came
slowly up to them. Then, as it swung up into the wind, with the sail
loosely flapping, Mr. Watson called:
"Come on, children, don't you want to go for a ride?"
"Oh, let's!" cried Flossie, clapping her hands.
"And I want to steer!" added Freddie.
"No, you can't do that!" exclaimed Nan. "Oh, Bert, do you think it
would be all right for us to go?" she asked her older brother.
"I don't see why not," said Bert. "The wind doesn't blow hard, and Mr.
Watson knows all about ice-boats. I say let's go!"
"Oh, what fun!" cried Flossie and Freddie.
They took off their 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