In due time they arrived in Lakeport, and when Flossie and Freddie rushed into the house, almost knocking down dear old fat Dinah, they found Splash, the big dog, waiting for them.  And Splash did really knock Flossie down, he was so glad to see her.  But she was so fat that, really, falling just to the floor did not hurt her at all.  And, anyhow, she sat down on the tail of Splash, so it was like a cushion, only, of course, he could not wag it until Flossie got up.

“Oh, chilluns! how glad I is t’ see yo’ all!” cried Dinah, trying to hug all four of them at once.

“And here’s Laddie,” said Flossie.  “Aren’t you glad to see him?”

“Co’se I is, chile!  I lubs yo’ all!” and she hugged Laddie, too.

Leaving his wife at the Bobbsey home, Mr. Whipple went with Mr. Bobbsey to the hospital where Uncle Jack (as they still called him) had been taken.

The old woodchopper was much better, though still weak and ill.  One of the doctors had told him some one was coming to see him, and had said it might prove to be some one who knew about his brother and sister.  Poor Uncle Jack’s eyes filled with tears.

“Oh, I only hope it is true,” he said.

Mr. Whipple walked softly into the hospital room.  After a short talk with the old woodchopper, Mr. Daniel Whipple cried: 

“It is true!  I am your brother!  Oh, John, I have found you at last!”

There was no doubt of it.  After further talking it over between them, Mr. Daniel Whipple and Mr. John Whipple made sure they were brothers.  And when Uncle Jack (as many still kept on calling him) got better, every one could see that he and Mr. Whipple, the department store owner, looked very much alike, except that the woodchopper was older.

But I must not call him a woodchopper, for he was that no longer.

“You are coming to live with me,” said his brother Dan.  “I have enough to look after you.  No more hard work for you!”

“I am very happy,” said Uncle Jack.  “Bless the dear children; they helped you to find me as much as any one did.”

“Yes,” said Uncle Dan, as the Bobbsey twins called Laddie’s uncle, “if Flossie and Freddie hadn’t fallen off the ice-boat I might still be looking for you, John.”

And so, as you have read, everything came out all right.  Uncle Jack, in a few weeks, was able to leave the hospital, quite well again, though he was very weak, and he was old.  He grew stronger in time, but of course no younger, though he lived for a number of happy years with his brother.

Laddie stayed in Lakeport over two weeks, and he had many good times with the Bobbsey twins.  His mother, as soon as the weather became warm, came on from California and said she had never seen Laddie play with two children he liked more than he did Flossie and Freddie.  Bert and Tommy Todd sailed the ice-boat, and it did not upset again, though once it came very near it.  Flossie and Freddie were given the cart and goat they so much wanted, but I shall have no room here to tell about the fun they had with them.