“Hurrah!” cried Bert, when he heard this.  “Talk about good luck!  And to-day’s Saturday, too!”

A pair of skates was found to fit Harry and the two larger boys, with Freddie trailing along behind, soon went down to the lake.  They were well wrapped up to keep out the cold.  Nan said she would come down later with Flossie.

“I have to practise my music first,” said Nan.

Bert and Harry were good skaters, and Freddie did very well too, for his age.  But he could cut none of the “fancy figures” as did his brother and cousin.  Freddie was satisfied to glide around with some of the smaller boys he knew.

“Will you be all right, if Harry and I have a race down at the lower end of the lake?” asked Bert, after a bit.

“Course I will,” said Freddie.

“Well, then we’ll leave you for a little while.  But don’t go over near the point,” warned Bert.  “It isn’t frozen so solidly there.  The ice is thin and you may go through.  Keep away from the point.”

“I will,” promised Freddie.  The point was where some land curved out into the lake, making a sort of little cove, and as this was a sheltered place the ice had not frozen so thick there.

Bert and Harry raced away, to see who would first get to a certain point, while Freddie stayed with his little chums.  Pretty soon, however, Freddie felt cold.

“I’m going in my father’s office to get warm,” he said to Johnnie Wilson who was with him.  “Come on.”

The two little chaps were soon in the warm office of the lumber yard.  Freddie saw Tommy Todd come in, having been on an errand to the post-office for Mr. Bobbsey.

“Hello, Tommy!” called Freddie, who was warming his hands at the stove.  “Why don’t you go skating?”

“Haven’t any skates,” was the answer, and Tommy smiled.  He was poor, and did not have any of the playthings other boys had, but for all that he was not cross or gloomy.  “Besides, if I did have a pair I couldn’t go.  I have to work to-day,” Tommy went on.

“Oh, I could let you have some time off to go skating, if you wanted to,” said Mr. Bobbsey.

“Well, I would like it, if I had the skates,” Tommy said.  “But, as I haven’t, I’ll stay and run errands for you.”

“You could take my skates, while I’m getting warm,” Freddie said.  “I guess I’ll be quite a while getting warm, too, for it’s awful cold out.”

“Your skates are too small, I’m afraid,” said Tommy.

“Bert has an extra pair.  I heard him say so when he gave those to Harry,” put in Freddie.  “Couldn’t Tommy take them, Daddy?”

“Why, yes, I think so.  If you want to go up to the house after them I’ll telephone Mrs. Bobbsey to have them ready for you,” the lumber merchant said to his errand boy.

“Oh, yes, sir, I should like it!  I haven’t skated for a long time.”

Mr. Bobbsey telephoned, and a little later Tommy was gliding about the frozen lake on a pair of Bert’s skates, which, however, were quite good.  Bert had laid them aside when he had been given a pair of shoe hockeys.