sail it alone. I wish you could go with me, Charley."
"I wish I could, but I don't see how I can. My folks are going to my grandmother's for a couple of weeks. Otherwise I'd be glad to go."
"Well, maybe my father will sail in the iceboat with me," spoke Bert. "I guess I'll ask him."
Bert and Nan had much to talk about as they skated on, having bidden Charley goodbye, and their conversation was mostly about the new idea of getting to Snow Lodge on the ice.
"I don't want to skate alone, any more than you want to go in the ice-boat alone," said Nan. "But maybe mamma and papa will let us invite some of our friends to spend a week or so at Snow Lodge with us. Then it would be all right."
"It surely would," said Bert.
The Christmas dinner at the Bobbsey home was a jolly affair, and while it was being eaten Bert spoke to his father about the ice-boat.
"Do you think it will carry you to the upper
