"Easy now, children! Don't dispute," said Mrs. Bobbsey gently.
"Uncle Jack is quite a character around Lakeport," went on Mr. Bobbsey. "I don't know all his story, but he has lived in the woods for a number of years. Where he was before that I don't know."
"He don't know hardly anything about his folks, Daddy!" piped up Freddie.
"How do you know?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
"He told us so," put in Flossie. "It was that day he took us in his house, after we got spilled from the ice-boat."
"Well, perhaps that is right," said Mr. Bobbsey, when the two small twins had told what Uncle Jack had related to them. "They really know more about him than I do. All I know is that he is a good, faithful old man. He sells us wood and many of my friends buy of him. We help him all we can.
"I suppose he must have had some folks once upon a time, but, as he says, he has lost track of them. The bad news I have about him is that he needs to go to the hospital. I think he will not get well if he does not have a
