Most of my life has been spent
working on farmers' land, until I got so old I could not plow or cut hay.
Then the man who owns this forest said I might come here and chop
firewood, and I did. I built this cabin myself, and I've lived all alone
in it for many years."
This was so, for Jack had been in the woods from the time when Bert and
Nan were babies, so Flossie and Freddie had often heard their older
brother and sister say.
"Haven't you any folks?" asked Freddie.
"Well, I seem to remember that once I had a brother and a sister. But I
lost track of them, and they lost me, I guess; so where they are now, if
they're anywhere, I don't know. I'm all alone, I guess," and the
woodchopper's face was sad.
"Never mind! We'll come to see you," said Flossie, with a smile. "But now
maybe we'd better start home, Freddie. Papa and Mamma may be worried about
us."
"I'll take you home, if you've had enough to eat," said Uncle Jack.
"Oh, we've had plenty, thank you," said Freddie. "But it's a long way to
go home. If I could sail the ice-boat back----"
"I don't like that boat!" cried Flossie.
"How would you like to ride on a sled?" asked the woodchopper. "In a sled
drawn by a horse with jingling bells?"
"That would be _fine!_" cried Freddie, clapping his hands. "But where is
he--the horse, I mean?"
"Oh, out in my little stable. I built a small stable, as well as this
cabin, for I have to haul my wood into town to sell it.
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