“Is that the name of your horse?”

“Yes.  Bucksaw is his name.  Pretty good for a woodchopper’s horse, I guess,” and the old man smiled.

While Flossie and Freddie were being driven home by the woodchopper, Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey, with Bert and Nan, left far behind on the ice when the Bird upset, were much worried and excited.

“What can we do?” cried Bert.

“We must go after those children!” exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey.

“That’s what I’m going to do,” Mr. Bobbsey remarked.

“If I could borrow one of those ice-boats over there,” put in Bert, pointing toward some on the other side of the lake, “I could sail down and get them.”

“No more ice-boats to-day!” said Mrs. Bobbsey.  “Oh, I do hope nothing happens to Flossie and Freddie!”

“I don’t believe they’ll be hurt,” said their father.  “Even if they fall out they can’t get much of a bump on the ice, and if they run ashore, as they’re likely to do, they’ll only fall in the snow.  Don’t worry.”

“But we must go after them!” cried his wife.

“Just what I am going to do.  Bert and I will go to shore, hire a team and drive down the lake after them.  The road runs right along the lake shore and we’ll be sure to see them, or hear something of them.  They’ll be all right.”

It did not take Mr. Bobbsey and Bert long to get started on the search for the missing ones, for Flossie and Freddie in the ice-boat had sailed around the point of land, as I told you, and were out of sight of their folks.

Mrs. Bobbsey and Nan were taken home by some friends who happened to pass the lake in their automobile, and half-way to the woodcutter’s cabin, though he had no idea the children had been there, Mr. Bobbsey and Bert met them being driven to Lakeport by Uncle Jack.

“Oh, there’s Daddy!” cried Freddie.

“And Bert!” added Flossie, as she saw her brother.  “Your ice-boat’s all right,” she added.  “We just fell out of it.”

“Are you all right?” asked Mr. Bobbsey, stopping his horses.

“Fine!” cried Freddie.  “And we had bread and milk.”

“Well, I’m sure I’m much obliged to you, Uncle Jack,” said the children’s father.  “It was very kind of you.”

Then Flossie and Freddie told their story, and the woodchopper told of having seen them tossed into the snow and of how he helped them out, and then Mr. Bobbsey told what had happened to him, the children’s mother, Bert and Nan.

“I just pulled on the wrong rope, that’s all, and I guess I steered the boat crooked,” said Freddie with a laugh.

“You’re lucky it was no worse,” remarked Bert, laughing also.  “But as long as you two are all right, and the Bird isn’t damaged, I’m glad.”

Mr. Bobbsey was also, and then he took the children into his sleigh, driving home with them while Uncle Jack turned back.

“I like him,” said Flossie, speaking of the old woodchopper to her father.  “He hasn’t a chick or a child and he lives all alone in the woods.”