"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 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 Freddie, making a dive after Snoop, the cat, who was hiding under the table.
"Have you heard yet whether you are to go?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, of her husband, when the noisy greetings to the children were over.
"No, not yet," he answered, and he made a motion with his head, as if to tell his wife not to speak of a certain matter before the children.
"Oh, I saw you wink!" cried Nan, clapping her hands. "What does it mean?
Is it a secret, Momsey?"
"Well, yes, Nan. You shall be told in plenty of time, if anything comes of it."
"Oh, that"s two secrets!" cried Nan. "Bert has one and now there"s one here."
"What is Bert"s secret?" asked Nan"s mother.
"I don"t know yet; he won"t tell me."
"Yes, I"ll tell you to-morrow," said her brother. "But what"s this about Father going away, Mother? Are we going too?"
"Supper am ready, chilluns!" exclaimed the voice of Dinah, the cook, and that ended the talk about secrets for the time being.
"But when are you going to tell me _yours?_" Nan managed to whisper to her brother when the dessert was being served.
"Come down to the lumberyard to-morrow afternoon," he whispered. "It"s almost done."
Without telling Flossie or Freddie anything about it, Nan slipped off by herself the next afternoon, and from the watchman in her father"s lumberyard learned that Bert and another boy were in one of the sheds. As Nan came closer she could hear the noise of hammering and sawing.
"Oh, Bert, what are you making?" cried Nan, as she saw her brother and Tommy Todd busy with sticks, boards, hammer and nails.
"This is the _Bird!_" cried Bert, waving a hammer at something that, so far, did not look like much of anything.
"A bird?" cried Nan. "It looks more like a scare-crow!"
"Just wait until it"s finished!" said Tommy Todd. "When we get the sail on----"
"Oh, Bert! is it a _boat?_" cried Nan eagerly.
"Yes, it"s going to be an ice-boat, and I"ve called it the _Bird_," was the answer. "I got the idea of building it after I"d seen Mr. Watson"s.
Father said I might, and he gave me the lumber, and let me have a carpenter to help, for Tommy and I couldn"t do it all. But now the ice-boat is almost done and in a few days I"ll sail it."
"And may I have a ride?" asked Nan.
"Of course. I"ll take the whole family," said Bert. "Just you wait," and then he and Tommy went on hammering and sawing.
CHAPTER III
A RUNAWAY
"All aboard!"
"Don"t forget your baggage!"
"This way for your tickets!"