“I should say so!  They’re great!”

“Oh, I can’t bear them!” went on Nan.  “Please let’s stop and rest.  My heart is beating so fast I can’t skate for a while.”

“All right—­we’ll call the race off,” agreed Bert.  Flossie and Freddie were a little startled by the closeness of the ice-boat, and they skated back to join their brother and sister.

And while they are taking a little rest on the ice I shall have a chance to let my new readers know something of the past history of the children about whom I am writing.

There were two pairs of Bobbsey twins.  They were the children of Mr. Richard Bobbsey and his wife Mary, and the family lived in an Eastern city called Lakeport, which was at the head of Lake Metoka.  Mr. Bobbsey was in the lumber business, having a yard and docks on the shore of the lake about a quarter of a mile from his house.

The older Bobbsey twins were Nan and Bert.  They had dark hair and eyes, and were rather tall and slim.  Flossie and Freddie, the younger twins, were short and fat, with light hair and blue eyes.  So it would have been easy to tell the twins apart, even if one pair had not been older than the other.  Besides the children and their parents there were in the “family” two other persons—­Dinah Johnson, the fat, good-natured colored cook, and Sam, her husband, who looked after the furnace in the Winter and cut the grass in Summer.

Then there was Snoop, and Snap.  The first was a fine black cat and the second a big dog, both great pets of the children.  Those of you who have read the first book of this series, entitled “The Bobbsey Twins,” do not need to read this explanation here, but others may care to.  In the second volume I told you of the fun the twins had in the country.  After that they went to the seashore, and this subject has a book all to itself, telling of the adventures there.

Later on the Bobbseys went back to school, where they had plenty of fun, and when they were at Snow Lodge there were some strange happenings, as there were also on the houseboat Bluebird.  There was a stowaway boy—­but there!  I had better let you read the book for yourself.

The Bobbsey twins spent some time at Meadow Brook, but there was always a question whether they had better times there or “At Home,” which is the name of the book just before this one.

You, who have read that book, will remember that Flossie and Freddie found, in a big snow storm, the lost father of Tommy Todd, a boy who lived with his grandmother in a poor section of Lakeport.  And it was still that same Winter, after Tommy’s father had come home, that we find the Bobbsey twins skating on the ice, having just missed being run into by the ice-boat.

“My! but that was a narrow escape!” exclaimed Nan, as she skated slowly about.  “My heart is beating fast yet.”

“So’s mine,” added Flossie.  “Did he do it on purpose?”

“No, indeed!” exclaimed Bert.  “I guess Mr. Watson wouldn’t do a thing like that! He was looking after the ropes of the sail, or doing something to the steering rudder, and that’s why he didn’t see you and Freddie.”