"Do you think it will carry you to the upper end of the lake?" asked Mr.

Bobbsey with a smile, for Bert and Charley had made the boat themselves, with a little help. Though it was a home-made affair, Bert was as proud of it as though a large sum had been spent for it.

"Of course it will carry us to Snow Lodge," he said. "There would be room for four or five on it, if the wind was strong enough to carry us to the head of the lake. But I don't want to go alone, Father. Could you come?"

"I'm afraid not," laughed Mr. Bobbsey. "I'll have to go in the big sled with your mother, and the provisions. We're going to take Dinah and Sam along, you know. Can't you ask some of your boy friends? I guess there's room enough at the Lodge."

"That's just what I'll do!" exclaimed Bert "I'll see who of the boys can go."

"And may I ask Grace Lavine or Nellie Parks?" inquired Nan. "We could skate up, or go part way in the ice-boat with the boys."

"I think so," said Mrs. Bobbsey.

"I know who you could take on the ice-boat," said Freddie, pa.s.sing his plate for more turkey.

"Who?" asked Bert.

"Dinah!" cried the little fellow. "She would be so heavy that she couldn't roll off, and if the ice-boat started to blow away she'd be as good as an anchor."

"That's right!" cried Nan. "Dinah, did you hear what Freddie is planning for you?" she asked as the fat cook came in with the plum pudding.

"I 'clar t' goodness I neber knows what dat ar' chile will be up to next!" exclaimed Dinah with a laugh. "But if he am plannin' to squirt any mo' fire injun water on me I's gwine t' run away, dat's what I is!"

They all laughed at this, Dinah joining in, and then Freddie explained what he had said.

"No, sah! Yo' don't cotch me on no ice-cream boat!" declared Dinah.

"I'll go in a sled, but I ain't gwine t' fall down no hole in de ice and be bit by a fish! No, sah!"

There was more laughter, and then the plum pudding was served. Freddie begged that Snoop and Snap be given an extra good dinner, on account of it being Christmas, and Dinah promised to see to this.

Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey discussed the plans for going to Snow Lodge. They agreed that Bert and Nan, if they wished, might each ask a friend, for the old farmhouse in the woods on the edge of the lake contained many rooms. It was completely furnished, all that was needed being food.

"So if you young folks want to skate or ice-boat up the lake I see no objection," said Mr. Bobbsey. "The rest of us will go in a big sled."

"Couldn't I go in the ice-boat?" asked Freddie. "I'm getting big. I'm almost in the first reader book."

"We're going so fast your fire engine might be lost overboard," said Bert with a smile, and that was enough for his little brother. He didn't want that to happen for the world, so he gave up the plan of going on the _Ice Bird_.

"I don't like the idea of that Danny Rugg going to be near us," said Mrs. Bobbsey to her husband, when Bert had told this news. "He's sure to make trouble."

"Perhaps not," said Mr. Bobbsey. "Bert generally manages to hold his own when Danny bothers him."

"Yes, I know. But it always makes hard feelings. I do wish Danny wasn't going up there."

"Well, the woods are open, and we can't stop him," said Mr. Bobbsey, with a smile. The children had gone out to play, and the house was quiet once more.

"There is a great deal to do to get ready," went on Mrs. Bobbsey. "But I think the trip will do us all good. I only hope none of us take cold."

"Don't worry," advised her husband. "I'll see Mr. Carford, and have the fires made up a couple of days before we arrive. That will make the house good and warm, and dry it out."

They talked over the various things they had to do in order to make their stay at Snow Lodge pleasant, and then went out to call on some friends.

That afternoon Bert and Nan extended the invitation to Snow Lodge to a number of their boy and girl friends, explaining how they were going to make the trip on skates or on the ice-boat.

But one after another declined. Either their parents had made other plans for spending the Christmas holidays, or they did not think it wise to let their children go off in the woods.

Bert asked a number of boys he knew, but none of them could go, and Grace Lavine, Nellie Parks, and many other girls to whom Nan spoke, made excuses.

"I guess we'll have to give up the ice-boat plan," said Bert, regretfully that night to Nan. "No one seems able to go. Will you risk it with me, Nan?"

"I wouldn't be afraid," she answered. "If mamma and papa will let me I'll sail in the _Ice Bird_ with you."

"Then we'll go that way!" cried Bert. But the next day something occurred that made a change in the plans of the Bobbsey twins.

CHAPTER XII

THE LETTERS

The day after Christmas, when Bert and Nan came home from having been to see a number of their friends, but not having succeeded in getting any of them to promise to make the trip to Snow Lodge, the two older Bobbsey twins were quite discouraged.

"I'll need another fellow to help me sail the ice-boat," spoke Bert. "Of course I know you'll do all you can, Nan, but we can't tell what might happen. I don't see what's the matter with all the fellows, anyhow, that they can't go."

"And the girls, too," added Nan. "I couldn't get one of them to promise.

And I don't know whether mamma and papa will let you and me go in the ice-boat by ourselves."

And, when they heard of this plan, both Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey objected to it.

"It would be too risky," decided Mr. Bobbsey. "Your ice-boat is a small one. I know, Bert, but in a stiff wind it might capsize if you did not have some other boy along to help you manage it. I guess you and Nan had better come with us in the big sled."

"I think so, too," added Mrs. Bobbsey.

There seemed to be no other way out of it, and Nan and Bert felt quite badly. Not even the tricks of Snap and Snoop, when Freddie and Flossie put the dog and cat through them before going to bed, would cause their older brother and sister to look happy.

"Never mind," said Mamma Bobbsey, "when we get to Snow Lodge you'll have such a good time that you won't mind not having made the trip on skates or on the ice-boat. And you can skate all you like when you get up there."

The next day Freddie was playing quite a game. He had a little toy village, made of pasteboard houses, and this he had set up in the playroom. He was pretending that a fire had broken out in one of the dwellings and he was going to put it out with his toy engine. Of course there was not even a match on fire, for Mrs. Bobbsey was very careful about this, but Freddie pretended to his heart's content. He was allowed to have real water, but Dinah had spread on the floor an old rubber coat so that the spray would do no harm.

With a great shout Freddie came running out of the "engine house," which was a chair turned on its side. He was pulling his toy after him, racing to the make-believe blaze.

Just then Flossie came into the room with her new walking doll, and, not seeing her, Freddie ran into and knocked her over.

Flossie sat down quite hard, and for a moment was too surprised to cry.

But a moment later, when she saw Freddie's fire engine run over her new doll, which cried out "Mamma!" as if in pain, the tears came into Flossie's eyes.

"Oh, you bad boy!" she exclaimed, forgetting her own pain, at the sight of her doll, "you've run right over her!"