As the Bobbseys walked along with their new friend they saw their father and mother coming toward them.
"Bert, Nan, where have you been?" asked their mother.
"Off in the woods," Bert answered.
"And we saw a big tree fall down and it 'most falled on us!" added
Flossie.
"But he pulled us out from under it! Didn't you?" went on Freddie, and he looked up at the big man in the big boots, who wore a red shirt like the other lumbermen.
"What's that?" asked Mr. Bobbsey. "Were you children near a falling tree?"
"That's what they were—too near for comfort," said the man as he let go of the hands of Flossie and Freddie, so the small Bobbsey twins might run to their mother. "It was careless of one of the men to leave a tree half chopped through. But no harm is done. I managed to get the kiddies out of the way in time."
Mr. Bobbsey must have guessed how it happened, for he shook hands heartily with the lumberman.
"I can't thank you enough," said the children's father. "You saved
Flossie and Freddie from being hurt, if not killed! Do you work here?"
"I'm the foreman," answered the man quietly.