The Bobbsey Twins in a Great City | Page 7

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!"
"The ice-boat Bird makes no stops this side of the lake! All aboard!"
Bert Bobbsey and Tommy Todd thus were calling at the end of one of
the lumberyard docks one day about a week after Nan had seen her
brother building the ice-boat. Coming down the dock were Mr. and Mrs.
Bobbsey, with Nan, Flossie and Freddie. Snap, the big dog, was
bounding on ahead through the snow, barking joyously. He enjoyed fun
as much as any one.
"All aboard! Please hurry up!" cried Bert.
"Why, I thought this was a special trip you were giving us, and we
didn't have to hurry," laughed his mother.
"It is," Bert said. "But you see you can't sail an ice-boat if you haven't
any wind, and I want you to have a ride before the wind dies away, as it
might. So come on, get on board!"
"I want to steer!" cried Freddie.
"No, you must not," said Nan.
"Yes, I must. I know how to steer a motor boat, and I can steer an
ice-boat, I guess," and Freddie was very sure about it.
"After a while, maybe," agreed Bert. "But an ice-boat is different to
steer from a motor boat. I'll show you how, though."
Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey got on the little platform which Bert had built as
a sort of open cabin. It had old carpets and rugs on it, and there were
blankets and robes to keep the passengers warm. After some failures
Bert and Tommy had finally managed to finish the ice-boat. It was not
as easy to build as they had expected, but Mr. Bobbsey's carpenter had
helped