The Bobbsey Twins in a Great City | Page 9

Bert "Don't touch anything, Freddie!" he went
on, for his little brother was reaching out toward the sail. "I'll have to
wait until the wind doesn't blow so strong before I can let your steer,
Freddie."
"But I want to steer when we're going _fast!_" cried the little fellow. "I
know how to do it. You just----"
Freddie never finished what he was saying. Whether he touched
anything, or whether Bert was afraid he would, and so pulled on the
wrong rope to keep it out of Freddie's way, was never known.
Suddenly the ice-boat gave a quick whirl to one side, like a boy or a
girl on roller skates going around a corner. It went around so quickly
that it tipped half-way over. Mrs. Bobbsey and Nan screamed. Mr.
Bobbsey called to Bert to be careful, but it was too late. Bert had lost

his hold of the rudder and the sail rope.
The next second Bert shot out of the ice-boat, and slid along on his
back. A moment later his father and mother were also spilled out,
followed by Nan. Then the ice-boat, not having such a heavy load
aboard, settled down on the ice again, and started to run away, or,
rather, blow away.
Right before the wind it flew, and Flossie and Freddie, being well
tucked in among the robes and blankets were not spilled out. They
stayed on board; and Mr. Bobbsey, sitting up after he had slid some
distance across the ice, saw the Bird scooting down the lake, carrying
his two smaller twins with it.
"Oh, the ice-boat is running away with Flossie and Freddie!" cried Nan,
as she, too, saw what had happened.

CHAPTER IV
THE OLD WOODCHOPPER
While Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey, Bert and Nan picked themselves up from
where they had fallen and slid along the ice, the ice-boat, with Flossie
and Freddie snugly tucked in among the blankets and robes, was
skimming down the lake, blown by a strong wind.
At first the two small twins hardly knew what had happened. They had
felt the ice-boat tilt to one side, they remembered that they had nearly
fallen out, and then they had sailed on again. It was not until Flossie
opened her eyes (she always shut them when anything surprising was
happening) that she saw she and Freddie were alone in the Bird.
"Why! Why!" she exclaimed. "Where are Daddy and Mother?"
"Yes, and Bert and Nan?" added Freddie. "Where is everybody?"
Then the two small twins looked back over the icy lake and far behind

them saw their father and mother, with Bert and Nan, standing on the
ice and waving their hands.
"Oh, they've jumped off and left us to sail the boat alone!" cried
Freddie. "Now I can steer! Isn't that good?"
Flossie was not quite sure that this was "good," but, for a few seconds,
she believed what Freddie had said--that the others had jumped off the
ice-boat. She did not know that they had been spilled out, as Bert said
afterward.
"Now watch me steer!" cried Freddie, crawling back toward the tiller,
which was the last thing Bert had let go of, as he shot from the boat.
"Oh, can you?" asked Flossie. "Do you think you can steer?"
"Of course I can," was the answer. "You just watch me. I'll make this
boat go faster!"
"But you want to be awfully careful, Freddie."
"Oh, I'm always careful, ain't I?"
"Well, I s'pose you are--most times," answered Flossie, somewhat
slowly. She did not wish to hurt her twin's feelings.
"Oh, I know what I'm doing," was Freddie's confident reply. "You just
watch me! I'll make this boat go just as fast as anything!"
As it had happened, a rope had become caught around the tiller, or
handle, of the rudder, thus holding it so that the ice-boat sailed straight
before the wind. Otherwise it would have darted from side to side, and
perhaps Flossie and Freddie would have been tossed out as the others
had been. But it so happened that they sailed along nicely, no one being
at the helm.
Straight down the lake sailed the Bird with the two little twins aboard.
They had been a bit frightened at first, but now Freddie was thinking
only of how he could steer the craft, and Flossie was waiting to see

what her brother would do.
"I wonder what they're waving to us for?" asked Flossie, as she looked
back and saw the frantic signals of her father and mother, Bert and Nan.
"And they're running after us, too!" she added.
"Maybe they want us to come back," suggested Freddie. But as the
ice-boat was too far away for the older Bobbseys to make their voices
heard by Flossie and Freddie, Mr. Bobbsey and