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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bobbsey Twins at School, by Laura Lee Hope
+(#12 in our series by Laura Lee Hope)
+
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+**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
+
+
+Title: The Bobbsey Twins at School
+
+Author: Laura Lee Hope
+
+Release Date: July, 2004  [EBook #6063]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on October 31, 2002]
+[Date last updated: August 15, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL ***
+
+
+
+
+Charles Aldarondo, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading
+Team.
+
+
+
+[Illustration: FLOSSIE AND FREDDIE RAISED THE HOOP JUST IN TIME.]
+
+The Bobbsey Twins at School
+
+By LAURA LEE HOPE
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+
+
+
+I.      A CIRCUS TRAIN
+II.     SNOOP Is GONE
+III.    A QUEER DOG 
+IV.     HOME IN AN AUTO 
+V.      SNAP DOES TRICKS 
+VI.     DANNY RUGG IS MEAN 
+VII.    AT SCHOOL
+VIII.   BERT SEES SOMETHING
+IX.     OFF TO THE WOODS
+X.      A SCARE
+XI.     DANNY'S TRICK
+XII.    THE CHILDREN'S PARTY
+XIII.   AN UNPLEASANT SURPRISE
+XIV.    A COAT BUTTON
+XV.     THANKSGIVING
+XVI.    MR TETLOW ASKS QUESTIONS
+XVII.   THE FIRST SNOW
+XVIII.  A NIGHT ALARM 
+XIX.    WHO WAS SMOKING? 
+XX.     A CONFESSION 
+XXI.    THE FAT LADY'S LETTER 
+XXII.   SNAP AND SNOOP
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A CIRCUS TRAIN
+
+
+
+
+"Mamma, how much longer have we got to ride?" asked Nan Bobbsey,
+turning in her seat in the railroad car, to look at her parents,
+who sat behind her.
+
+"Are you getting tired?" asked Nan's brother Bert. "If you are I'll
+sit next to the window, and watch the telegraph poles and trees
+go by. Maybe that's what tires you, Nan," he added, and his father
+smiled, for he saw that Bert had two thoughts for himself, and one
+for his sister.
+
+"No, I'm not tired of the scenery," answered the brown-haired and
+brown-eyed girl, "but you may sit next the window, Bert, if you
+like."
+
+"Thanks!" he exclaimed as he scrambled over to the place his sister
+gave up.
+
+"Are you tired, dearie?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey,  leaning forward and
+smoothing out her daughter's hair with her hand. "If you would like
+to sit with me and put your head in my lap, papa can go to another
+seat and--"
+
+"Oh, no, mamma, I'm not as tired as that," and Nan laughed. "I was
+just wondering how soon we'd be home."
+
+"I'd rather be back at the seashore," said Bert, not turning his
+gaze from the window, for the train was passing along some fields
+just then, and in one a boy was driving home some cows to be
+milked, as evening was coming on Bert was wondering if one of the
+cows might not chase the boy. Bert didn't really want to see the
+boy hurt by a cow, of course, but he thought that if the cow was
+going to take after the boy, anyhow, he might just as well see it.
+But the cows were very well-behaved, and went along slowly.
+
+"Yes, the seashore was nice," murmured Nan, as she leaned her head
+back on the cushioned seat, "but I'm glad to be going home again.
+I want to see some of the girls,  and--"
+
+"Yes, and I'll be looking for some of the boys, too," put in Bert.
+"But school will soon begin, and that's no fun!"
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey smiled at each other, and Mr. Bobbsey, taking
+out a time-table, looked to see how much longer they would be on
+the train.
+
+"It's about an hour yet," he said to Nan, and she sighed. Really
+she was more tired than she cared to let her mother know.
+
+Just ahead of the two Bobbsey children were another set of them.
+I say "set" for the Bobbsey children came "in sets."
+
+There were two pairs of twins, Bert and Nan, nearly nine years of
+age, and Flossie and Freddie, almost five. And, whereas the two
+older children were rather tall and slim, with dark brown hair and
+eyes, the littler twins were short and fat, and had light hair and
+blue eyes. The two pairs of twins were quite a contrast, and many
+persons stopped to look at them as they passed along the street
+together.
+
+
+"No, sir," went on Bert musingly, "school's no fun, and it starts
+about a week  after we get home. No chance to have a good time!"
+
+"We've had fun all summer," replied his sister. "I rather like
+school."
+
+"Mamma, are we going to school this year?" asked Flossie, as she
+looked back with a quick turning of her head that set her yellow
+curls to dancing.
+
+"If we are, I'm going to sit with Flossie--can't I?" asked Freddie,
+kneeling in the seat so that he could face back to his father and
+mother.
+
+Indeed his request was not strange, since the two younger twins
+were always together, even more so than their brother and sister.
+
+"Yes, I think you and Freddie will start school regularly this
+term," said Mrs. Bobbsey, "and, if it can be arranged, you may sit
+together. We'll see about that. Be careful Freddie, don't put your
+head out of the window," she cautioned quickly, for the little
+chap had turned in his seat again, and was leaning forward to see
+a horse galloping about a field, kicking up its heels at the sound
+of the puffing engine.
+
+"It's my turn to sit by the window, anyhow," said Flossie.
+
+"It is not! We haven't passed a station yet," disputed Freddie.
+
+"Oh, we have so!" cried his little sister.  "Freddie Bobbsey!" and
+she pointed her finger at him.
+
+"Children--children," said Mrs. Bobbsey reprovingly.
+
+"Are you two taking turns?" asked Bert, smiling with an older
+brother's superior wisdom.
+
+"Yes," answered Flossie, "he was to have the seat next to the window
+until we came to a station, and then it's to be my turn until we
+pass another station, and we have passed one, but he won't change
+over."
+
+"Well, it was only a little station, anyhow," asserted Freddie,
+"and it come awful quick after the last one. It isn't fair!"
+
+"There's a seat up ahead for you, Bert," suggested Mr. Bobbsey, as
+a gentleman got up, when the train approached a station. "You can
+sit there, and let Flossie or Freddie take your place."
+
+"All right," answered Bert good-naturedly, as he got up.
+
+The train rolled on, the two younger twins each having a window
+now, and Nan occupying  the seat with her little brother. For a
+time there was quietness, until Mrs. Bobbsey said to her husband:
+
+"Hadn't you better get some of the satchels together, Richard, and
+tell Dinah what she is to carry?"
+
+"I think I will," he answered, as he went up the car aisle a
+little way to where a very fat colored woman sat. She was Dinah,
+the Bobbsey cook, and they took her with them always when going away
+for the summer.  Now they were on their way to their city house,
+and of course Dinah came back, too.
+
+"Mamma, I'm thirsty," said Flossie, after a bit. "Please may I get
+a drink?"
+
+"I want one, too," said Freddie quickly, "Come on, Flossie, we'll
+both go down to the end of the car where the water cooler is."
+
+"There's no cup," Nan said. "I went a little while ago, but a lady
+let me take her glass."
+
+"And if there was a cup, I would rather they didn't use it," said
+Mrs. Bobbsey. "One never knows who has last handled a public cup."
+
+"But I want a drink," insisted Flossie, a bit fretfully, for she
+was tired from the long journey.
+
+"I know it, dear," said her mamma gently, "and I'm getting out the
+silver cup for you.  Only you must be very careful of it, and not
+drop it, for it is solid silver and will dent, or mar, easily." She
+was searching in her bags and presently took out a very valuable
+drinking cup, gold lined and with much engraving on it. The cup
+had been presented to Flossie and Freddie on their first birthday,
+and bore each of their names. They were very proud of it.
+
+"Now be careful," warned Mrs. Bobbsey, as she held out the cup.
+"Hold on to the seats as you walk along."
+
+"I'll carry the cup," said Freddie. "I'm the biggest."
+
+"You are not!" declared his sister quickly.  "I'm just as big."
+
+"Well, anyhow, I'm a boy," went on Freddie,  and Flossie could not
+deny this. "And boys always carries things," her brother went on.
+"I'll carry the cup."
+
+"Very well, but be careful of it," said his mother with a smile,
+as she handed it to him.  The two children went down the aisle of
+the car. They stopped for a moment at the seat where Dinah was.
+
+"Is Snoop all right?" asked Freddie, peering  into a box that was
+made of slats, with spaces between them for air.
+
+"'Deed an' he am, honey," said Dinah with a smile, laughing so that
+she shook all over her big, fleshy body.
+
+"I 'spect he's lonesome; aren't you, Snoop?" asked Flossie, poking
+her finger in one of the cracks, to caress, as well as she could,
+a fat, black cat. The cat, like Dinah the cook, went with the
+Bobbseys on all their summer outings.
+
+"Well, maybe he am lonesome," admitted Dinah, with another laugh,
+"but he's been real good. He hain't yowled once--not once!"
+
+"He'll soon be out of his cage; won't you,  snoop?" said Freddie,
+and then he and his sister went on to the water cooler Near by they
+saw something else to look at This was the sight of a very, very
+fat lady who occupied nearly all of one seat in the end of the car.
+She was so large that only a very little baby could have found room
+beside her.
+
+"Look--look at her." whispered Flossie to Freddie, as they paused.
+The fat woman's back was toward them, and she seemed to be much
+interested in looking out of the window.
+
+"She is fat," admitted Freddie. "Did you ever see one so big before?"
+
+"Only in a circus," said Flossie "She'd make--make two of Dinah,"
+went on her brother.
+
+"She would not," contradicted Flossie quickly. "Cause Dinah's black,
+and this lady is white."
+
+"That's so," admitted Freddie, with a smile. "I didn't think of
+that."
+
+A sway of the train nearly made Flossie fall, and she caught quickly
+at her brother.
+
+"Look out!" he cried. "You 'most knocked the cup down."
+
+"I didn't mean to," spoke Flossie. "Oh, there goes my hat! Get it,
+Freddie, before someone steps on it!"
+
+Her brother managed to get the hat just as it was sliding under
+the seat where the fat lady sat.
+
+After some confusion the hat was placed on Flossie's head, and once
+more she and her brother moved on toward the water cooler.  It was
+getting dusk now, and some of the lamps in the car had been lighted.
+
+Freddie, carrying the cup, filled it with water at the little faucet,
+and, very politely, offered it to his sister first. Freddie was no
+better than most boys of his age, but he did not forget some of the
+little polite ways his mamma was continually teaching him. One of
+these was "ladies first," though Freddie did not always carry it
+out, especially when he was in a hurry.
+
+"Do you want any more?" he asked, before he would get himself a
+drink.
+
+"Just a little," said Flossie. "The silver cup doesn't hold much."
+
+"No, I guess it's 'cause there's so much   silver in it," replied
+her brother. "It's worth a lot of money, mamma said."
+
+"Yes, and it's all ours. When I grow up I'm going to have my half
+made into a bracelet."
+
+"You are?" said Freddie slowly. "If you do there won't be enough
+left for me to drink out of."
+
+"Well, you can have your share of it made into a watch, and drink
+out of a glass."
+
+"That's so," agreed Freddie, his face brightening. He gave his sister
+more water, and then took some himself. As he drank his eyes were
+constantly looking at the very fat lady who filled so much of her
+seat. She turned from the window and looked at the two children,
+smiling broadly. Freddie was somewhat confused, and looked down
+quickly.  Just then the train gave another lurch and Freddie suddenly
+spilled some of the water on his coat.
+
+"Oh, look what you did!" cried Flossie "And that's your best coat!"
+
+"I--I couldn't help it," stammered Freddie.
+
+"Never mind, little boy," said the fat lady.  "It's only clean water.
+Come here and I'll wipe it off with my handkerchief. I'd come to
+you, only I'm so stout it's hard enough for me to walk anyhow, and
+when the train is moving I simply can't do it."
+
+Freddie and Flossie went to her seat, and with a handkerchief, that
+Flossie said afterward was almost as big as a table cloth, the fat
+lady wiped the water off Freddie's coat.
+
+The little boy held the silver cup in his hand, and feeling, somehow,
+that he ought to repay the fat lady's kindness in some way after
+thanking her, he asked:
+
+"Would you like a drink of water? I can bring it to you if you
+would."
+
+"Thank you," she answered. "What a kind little boy you are! I saw
+you give your sister a drink first, too. Yes, I would like a drink.
+I've been wanting one some time, but I didn't dare get up to go
+after it."
+
+"I'll get it!" cried Freddie, eager to show what a little man
+he was. He made his way to the cooler without accident, and then,
+moving slowly, taking hold of the seat on the way  back, so as not
+to spill the water, he brought the silver cup brimful to the fat
+lady.
+
+"Oh, what a beautiful cup," she said, as she took it.
+
+"And it cost a lot of money, too," said Flossie. "It's ours--our
+birthday cup, and when I grow up I'm going to have a bracelet made
+from my half."
+
+"That will be nice," said the fat lady, as she prepared to drink.
+
+But she never got more than a sip of the water Freddie had so kindly
+brought her, for, no sooner did her lips touch the cup than there
+was a grinding, shrieking sound, a jar to the railway coach, and the
+train came to such a sudden stop that many passengers were thrown
+from their seats.
+
+Flossie and Freddie sat down suddenly in the aisle, but they were
+so fat that they did not mind it in the least. As surprised as he
+was, Freddie noticed that the fat lady was so large that she could
+not be thrown out of her seat no matter how suddenly the train
+stopped The little Bobbsey boy saw the water from the cup spill
+all over the fat lady, and she held the  silver vessel in her big,
+pudgy hand, looking curiously at it, as though wondering what had
+so quickly become of the water.
+
+"It's a wreck--the train's off the track!" a man exclaimed.
+
+"We've hit something!" cried another.
+
+"It's an accident, anyhow," said still a third, and then every one
+seemed to be talking at once.
+
+Mr. Bobbsey came running down the aisle to where Flossie and Freddie
+still sat, dazed.
+
+"Are you hurt?" he cried, picking them both up together, which was
+rather hard to do.
+
+"No--no," said Freddie slowly.
+
+"Oh, papa, what is it?" asked Flossie, wondering whether she was
+going to cry.
+
+"I don't know, my dear. Nothing serious, I guess. The engineer must
+have put the brakes on too quickly. I'll look out and see."
+
+Knowing that his children were safe, Mr.  Bobbsey put them down
+and led them back to where his wife was anxiously waiting.
+
+"They're all right," he called. "No one seems to be hurt."
+
+Bert Bobbsey looked out of the window.  Though darkness had fallen
+there seemed to be many lights up ahead of the stopped train.  And
+in the light Bert could see some camels, an elephant or two, a
+number of horses, and cages containing lions and tigers strung out
+along the track.
+
+"Why--why, what's this--a circus?" he asked. "Look, Nan! See those
+monkeys!"
+
+"Why, it is a circus--and the train must have been wrecked!"
+exclaimed his sister.  "Oh mamma, what can it be?"
+
+A brakeman came into the car where the Bobbseys were.
+
+"There's no danger," he said. "Please keep your seats. A circus
+train that was running ahead of us got off the track, and some of
+the animals are loose. Our train nearly ran into an elephant, and
+that's why the engineer had to stop so suddenly. We will go on
+soon."
+
+"A circus; eh?" said Mr. Bobbsey. "Well, well! This is an adventure,
+children. We've run into a circus train! Let's watch them catch
+the animals."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+SNOOP IS GONE
+
+
+
+
+"Papa, do you think a tiger would come in here?" asked Freddie,
+remembering all the stories of wild animals he had heard in his
+four years.
+
+"Or a lion?" asked Flossie.
+
+"Of course not!" exclaimed Nan. "Can't you see that all the wild
+animals are still in their cages?"
+
+"Maybe some of 'em are loose," suggested Freddie, and he almost
+hoped so, as long as his father was there to protect him.
+
+"I guess the circus men can look after them," said Bert. "May I
+get off, father, and look around?"
+
+"I'd rather you wouldn't, son. You can't tell what may happen."
+
+"Oh, look at that man after the monkey!" cried Nan.
+
+"Yes. and the monkey's gone up on top of the tiger's cage," added
+Bert. "Say, this is  as good as a circus, anyhow!"
+
+Some of the big, flaring lights, used in the tents at night, had
+been set going so the circus and railroad men could see to work,
+and this glare gave the Bobbseys and other passengers on the train
+a chance to see what was going on.
+
+"There's a big elephant!" cried Freddie.  "See him push the lion's
+cage around. Elephants are awful strong!"
+
+"They couldn't push a railroad train," said Flossie.
+
+"They could too!" cried her little brother, quickly.
+
+"They could not. Could they, papa?"
+
+"What?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, absent-mindedly.
+
+"Could an elephant push a railroad train?" asked Flossie.
+
+"I know they could," declared Freddie. "Couldn't they, papa?"
+
+"Now, children, don't argue. Look out of the windows," advised
+their mother.
+
+And while the circus men are trying to catch the escaped animals
+I will tell you something  more about the Bobbseys, and about the
+other books, before this one, relating to their doings.
+
+Mr. Richard Bobbsey, and his wife Mary, the parents of the Bobbsey
+twins, lived in an Eastern city called Lakeport, on Lake Metoka.
+Mr. Bobbsey was in the lumber business, and  the yard, with its
+great piles of logs and boards, was near the lake, on which the
+twins often went in boats. There was also a river running into the
+lake, not far from the saw mill.
+
+Their house was about a quarter of a mile away from the lumber yard,
+on a fashionable street, and about it was a large lawn, while in
+the back Sam Johnson, the colored man of all work, and the husband
+of Dinah, had a fine garden. The Bobbseys had many vegetables from
+this garden.
+
+There was also a barn near the house, and in this the children had
+many good times.  Flossie and Freddie played there more than did
+Nan and Bert, who were growing too old for games of that sort.
+
+As I have said, Bert and Nan were rather tall and thin, while
+Flossie and Freddie were short and fat. Mr. Bobbsey used often
+to call Flossie his "Fat Fairy," which always made her laugh. And
+Freddie had a pet name, too.  It was "Fat Fireman," for he often
+played that he was a fireman; putting out make-believe fires, and
+pretending he was a fire engine.  Once or twice his father had
+taken him to see a real fire, and this pleased Freddie very much.
+
+In the first book of this series, called "The Bobbsey Twins," I
+told you something of the fun the four children had in their home
+town.  They had troubles, too, and Danny Rugg, one of the few bad
+boys in Lakeport, was the cause of some. Also about a certain broken
+window; what happened when the twins went coasting, how they had
+a good time, in an ice boat, and how they did many other things.
+
+Snoop, the fat, black kitten, played a part in the story also. The
+Bobbsey twins were very fond of Snoop, and had kept him so many
+years that I suppose he ought to be called a cat, instead of a
+kitten, now.
+
+After the first winter's fun, told of in the book that began an
+account of the doings of the Bobbseys, the twins and their parents
+went to the home of Uncle Daniel Bobbsey, and his wife, Aunt Sarah,
+in Meadow Brook.
+
+In the book called "The Bobbsey Twins in the Country," I wrote down
+many of the things that happened during the summer.
+
+If they had fun going off to the country, taking Snoop with them,
+of course, they had many more good times on arriving at the farm.
+There was a picnic, jolly times in the woods, a Fourth of July
+celebration, and though a midnight scare alarmed them for a time,
+still they did not mind that.
+
+But, though the twins liked the country very much, they soon had
+a chance to see something  of the ocean, and in the third book of
+the series, called "The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore," my readers
+will find out what happened there.
+
+There was fun on the sand, and more fun in the water, and once
+the little ones got lost an an island. A great storm came up, and
+a ship was wrecked, and this gave the twins a chance to see the
+life savers, those brave men who risk their lives to help others.
+
+Then came closing days at Ocean Cliff, the home of Uncle William
+and Aunt Emily Minturn at Sunset Beach. School was soon to open,
+and Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey were anxious to get back to their town
+home, for Flossie and Freddie were to start regular lessons now,
+even though it was but in the kindergarten  class.
+
+Sa good-byes were said to the ocean, and though Dorothy Minturn cried
+a little when her cousins Nan and Flossie, and Bert and Freddie,
+had to leave, still she said she hoped they would come again. And
+so the Bobbseys were on their way home in the train when the circus
+accident happened that brought them to a stop.
+
+"And so we nearly ran into an elephant; eh?" said Mr. Bobbsey to
+the brakeman, who had brought in the news.
+
+"Yes, sir. Our engineer stopped just in time."
+
+"If we had hit him we'd gone off the  track," said Freddie.
+
+"No, we wouldn't," declared Flossie, who seemed bound to start a
+dispute. Perhaps she was so tired that she was fretful.
+
+"Say, can't you two stop disputing all the while?" asked Bert, in
+a low voice. "You make papa and mamma nervous."
+
+"Well, an elephant is big, anyhow," said Freddie.
+
+"So he is, little Fat Fireman," said Nan, "Come and sit with me,
+and we can see the men catch the monkeys."
+
+The work of getting the escaped animals back into their cages was
+going on rapidly.  Some of the passengers went out to watch, but
+the Bobbseys stayed in their seats, Mr. Bobbsey thinking this best.
+The catching of the monkeys was the hardest work, but soon even
+this was accomplished.
+
+The wait seemed very tiresome when there was nothing more to watch,
+and Mr. Bobbsey looked about for some railroad man of whom he could
+inquire how much longer delay there would be. The conductor came
+through the car.
+
+"When will we start?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"Not for some time, I'm afraid," spoke the ticket-taker. "The wreck
+is a worse one than I thought at first, and some of the cars of
+the circus train are across the track so we can't get by. We may
+be here two hours yet."
+
+"That's too bad. Where are we?"
+
+"Just outside of Whitewood."
+
+"Oh, that's near home!" exclaimed Mrs.  Bobbsey. "Why can't we get
+out, Richard, walk across the fields to the trolley line, and take
+that home? It won't be far, and we'll be there ever so much quicker."
+
+"Well, we could do that, I suppose," said her husband, slowly.
+
+"That's what a number of passengers did," said the conductor.
+"There's no danger in going out now--all the animals are back in
+their cages."
+
+"Then that's what we'll do, children," said their father. "Gather
+up your things, and we'll take the trolley home. The moon is coming
+up,  and it will soon be light."
+
+"I'm hungry," said Freddie, fretfully.
+
+"So am I," added his twin sister.
+
+"Well, I have some crackers and cookie in  my bag," replied Mrs.
+Bobbsey. "You can eat those on the way. Nan, go tell Dinah that
+we're going to take a trolley. We can each carry something."
+
+"I'll carry Snoop," exclaimed Freddie. He hurried down the aisle to
+where the cook was now standing, intending to get the box containing
+his pet cat "Where's Snoop, Dinah?" he asked.
+
+"Heah he am!" she said, lifting up the slat-box. "He ain't made a
+sound in all dis confusion, nuther."
+
+The next moment Freddie gave a cry of dismay:
+
+"Snoop's gone!" he wailed. "He broke open the box and he's gone!
+Oh, where is Snoop?"
+
+"Ma sakes alive!" cried Dinah. The box was empty!
+
+A hurried search of the car did not bring forth the black pet. Mr.
+and Mrs. Bobbsey, and some of the passengers, joined in the hunt.
+But there was no Snoop, and a slat that had pulled loose from one
+side of the box showed how he had gotten out.
+
+"Most likely Snoop got frightened when the train stopped so suddenly,
+and broke loose," said Mr. Bobbsey. "We may find him outside."
+
+"I--I hope an elephant didn't step on him," said Flossie, with a
+catch in her breath.
+
+"Oh--o--o--o! Maybe a tiger or a lion has him!" wailed Freddie.
+"Oh, Snoop!"
+
+"Be quiet, dear, we'll find him for you," said Mrs. Bobbsey, as
+she opened her satchel to get out some cookies. Then she remembered
+something.
+
+"Freddie, where is that silver cup?" she asked. "You had it to get
+a drink. Did you give it back to me?"
+
+"No, mamma, I--I--"
+
+"He gave the fat lady a drink from it," spoke Flossie, "and she
+didn't give it back."
+
+"The train stopped just as she was drinking," went on Freddie. "I
+sat down on the floor--hard, and I saw the water spill on her.  The
+fat lady has our silver cup! Oh, dear!"
+
+"And she's gone--and Snoop is gone!" cried Flossie. "Oh! oh!"
+
+"Is that so--did you let her take your cup,  Freddie?" asked his
+papa. Freddie only nodded.  He could not speak.
+
+"That fat lady was with the circus," said one of the men passengers.
+"Maybe you can  see her outside."
+
+"I'll look," said Mr. Bobbsey, quickly "That cup is too valuable
+to lose. Come, children, we'll see if we can't find Snoop also,
+and then we'll take a trolley car for home."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A QUEER DOG
+
+
+
+
+Papa Bobbsey first looked for some of the circus men of whom he
+might inquire about the fat lady. There was much confusion, for
+a circus wreck is about as bad a kind as can happen, and for some
+time Mr. Bobbsey could find no one who could tell him what he wanted
+to know.
+
+Meanwhile Mrs. Bobbsey kept the four children and Dinah with her,
+surrounding their little pile of baggage off to one side of the
+tracks. Some of the big torches were still burning, and the full
+moon was coming up, so that there was plenty of light, even if it
+was night.
+
+"Oh, but if we could only find Snoop!" cried Freddie. "Here, Snoop!
+Snoop!" he called.
+
+"I had much rather find the fat lady, and  get back your lovely
+silver cup," said Mrs.  Bobbsey. "I hope she hasn't taken it away
+with her."
+
+"She had it in her hand when the train stopped with such a jerk,"
+explained Flossie.  "Oh, but mamma, don't you want us to find
+Snoop--dear Snoop?"
+
+"Of course I do. But I want that silver cup very much, too. I hope
+your father finds it."
+
+"But there never could be another Snoop," cried Flossie. "Could
+there, Freddie? And we _could_ get another silver cup."
+
+"Don't be silly," advised Bert, rather shortly.
+
+"Oh, don't talk that way to them," said Nan. "They do love that
+cat so. Never mind, Flossie and Freddie. I'm sure we'll find him
+soon. Here comes papa."
+
+Mr. Bobbsey came back, looking somewhat worried.
+
+"Did you find her?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey anxiously.
+
+"No," he replied, with a shake of his head.  "She was the circus
+fat lady all right. It  seems she missed the show-train, and came
+on in ours. And, when we stopped she got out, and went up ahead.
+Part of the circus train, carrying the performers, was not damaged
+and that has gone on. The fat lady is with that, so one of the men
+said."
+
+"And, very likely, she has carried off our silver cup," exclaimed
+Mrs. Bobbsey. "Oh dear! Can you find her later, Richard?"
+
+"I think so. But it will take some time.  The circus is going to
+Danville--that's a hundred miles from here. But I will write to
+the managers there, and ask them to get our cup from the fat lady."
+
+"But where is Snoop?" asked Freddie, with much anxiety.
+
+"I don't know, my dear," answered Mr.  Bobbsey. "I asked the circus
+men if they had seen him, but they were too busy to  remember. He
+may be running around some where. But we can't wait any longer. We
+must get home. I'll speak to one of the switchmen, who stay around
+here, and if they see Snoop I'll have them keep him for us. We'll
+come back to-morrow and inquire."
+
+"But we want Snoop now!" exclaimed Freddie, fretfully.
+
+"I'm afraid we can't get him," said Mrs.  Bobbsey, gently. "Come,
+children, let's go home now, and leave it to papa. Oh, to think of
+your lovely silver cup being gone!"
+
+"Snoop is worse," said Flossie, almost crying.
+
+"I--I'm sorry I let the fat lady take the cup," spoke Freddie.
+
+"Oh, you meant all right, my dear," said his mamma, "and it was very
+kind of you.  But we really ought to start. We may miss a trolley.
+Come, Dinah, can you carry all you have?"
+
+"'Deed an' I can, Mrs. Bobbsey. But I suah am sorry 'bout dat ar'
+Snoop."
+
+"Oh, it wasn't your fault, Dinah," said Nan quickly. "He is getting
+to be such a big cat that he can easily push the slats off his box,
+now. We must make it stronger next time."
+
+Flossie and Freddie wondered if there would be a "next time," for
+they feared Snoop was gone forever. They did not worry so much
+about the silver cup, valuable as it was.
+
+With everyone in the little party carrying something, the Bobbsey
+family set off across the fields toward the distant trolley line
+that would take them nearly home. The moon was well up now, and
+there was a good path across the fields. Nan and Bert were talking
+about the wreck, and recalling some of the funny incidents of
+catching the circus animals.
+
+Flossie and Freddie were wondering whether they would ever see
+their pet cat again. They had had him so long that he seemed like
+one of the family.
+
+"Maybe he ran off and joined the circus," said Flossie.
+
+"Maybe," spoke her brother. "But he can't do any tricks, so they
+won't want him in a show."
+
+"He can so do tricks! He can chase his tail and almost grab it."
+
+"That isn't a trick."
+
+"It is so--as much as standing on your head."
+
+"Children--children--I don't know what  I'll do with you if you
+don't stop that constant bickering," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "You must
+not dispute so."
+
+"Well, mamma, but isn't chasing your tail a trick?" asked Flossie.
+"Freddie says it isn't."
+
+"Well, it isn't a circus trick, anyhow," declared her brother. "I
+meant a circus trick."
+
+"Well, Snoop is a good cat, anyhow," went on Flossie, "and I wish
+we had him back."
+
+"Oh, so do I!" exclaimed Freddie, and thus that little dispute
+ended.
+
+They were walking along through a little patch of woods now, when
+Bert, who was the last one in line, suddenly called out:
+
+"Something is coming after us!"
+
+"Coming after us? What do you mean?" asked Nan quickly, as she
+hurried to her father's side.
+
+"I mean I've been listening for two or three minutes now, to some
+animal following after us along the path. Some big animal, too."
+
+Flossie and Freddie both ran back and took hold of their mother's
+hands.
+
+"Don't scare the children, Bert," said Mr.  Bobbsey, a bit sternly.
+"Did you really hear something?"
+
+"Yes, father. It's some animal walking, behind us. Listen and you
+can hear it yourself."
+
+They all listened. It was very quiet. Then from down the hard dirt
+path they all heard the "pit-pat, pit-pat" of the footsteps of some
+animal. It was coming on slowly.
+
+For a moment Mr. Bobbsey thought of the wild animals of the circus.
+In spite of what the men had said perhaps one of the beasts might
+have escaped from its cage. The others in the little party evidently
+thought the same thing. Mrs. Bobbsey drew her children more closely
+about her.
+
+"'Deed an' if it's one ob dem elephants," said Dinah, "an' if he
+comes fo' me I'll jab mah hat pin in his long nose--dat's what I
+will!"
+
+"It can't be an elephant," said Mr. Bobbsey.  "One of the big beasts
+would make more noise than that. It may be one of the monkeys--I
+don't see how they could catch  them all--they were so lively and
+full of mischief."
+
+"Oh, if it's a monkey, may we keep it?" begged Flossie. "I just
+love a monkey."
+
+"Mercy, child! What would we do with it around the house?" cried
+Mrs. Bobbsey.  "Richard, can you see what it is?"
+
+Mr. Bobbsey peered down the road.
+
+"I can see something," he said. "It's coming nearer."
+
+"Oh dear!" cried Nan, trembling with fear.
+
+Just then a bark sounded--a friendly bark.
+
+"It's a dog!" said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Oh, I'm so glad it wasn't--an
+elephant," and she hugged Freddie and Flossie.
+
+"Pooh! I wasn't afraid!" cried Freddie.  "If it had been an elephant
+I--I'd give him a cookie, and maybe he'd let me ride home on his
+back."
+
+The animal barked louder now, and a moment later he came into sight
+on a moonlit part of the path. The children could see that it was
+a big, shaggy white dog, who wagged his tail in greeting as he
+walked up to them.
+
+"Oh, what a lovely dog!" cried Nan, "I wonder where he belongs?"
+
+The fine animal came on. Bert snapped his fingers, boy-fashion.
+
+Instantly the dog stood up on his hind legs and began marching
+about in a circle on the path.
+
+"Oh, what a queer dog!" cried Flossie.  "Oh I wish he was ours!"
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+HOME IN AN AUTO
+
+
+
+
+Down on his four legs dropped the big white dog, and with another
+wag of his fluffy tail he came straight for Flossie.
+
+"Be careful!" warned Mamma Bobbsey.
+
+"He won't hurt her!" declared Bert.  "That's a good dog, anyone
+can tell that.  Here, doggie; come here!" he called.
+
+But the dog still advanced toward Flossie, who shrank back a bit
+timidly.
+
+"You never can tell what dogs will do," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "It is
+best to be careful."
+
+"I guess he knew what Flossie said to him," spoke up Freddie. "He
+knows we like dogs."
+
+The dog barked a little, and, coming up to where Flossie was, again
+stood on his hind legs.
+
+"That's a queer trick," said Mr. Bobbsey.  "I guess this dog has
+been trained. He probably belongs around here."
+
+"I wish he belonged to us," sighed Nan.  Like Flossie and Freddie
+she, too, loved animals.
+
+"Maybe we can keep him if we don't find Snoop," suggested Freddie.
+"Oh, papa, will you get Snoop back?" and Freddie's voice sounded
+as though he was going to cry.
+
+"Yes, yes, of course I will," said Mr.  Bobbsey quickly. He did not
+want the children to fret now, with still quite a distance yet to
+go home, and that in a trolley car. There were bundles to carry,
+weary children to look after, and Mrs. Bobbsey was rather tired
+also.  No wonder Papa Bobbsey thought he had many things to do that
+night.
+
+"Come along, children," called Mrs. Bobbsey, "it is getting late,
+and we are only about half way to the trolley. Oh dear! if that
+circus had to be wrecked I wish it could have waited until our
+train passed."
+
+"Are you very tired?" asked her husband.  "I can take that valise."
+
+"Indeed you'll not. You have enough."
+
+"Lemme hab it, Massa Bobbsey," pleaded Dinah. "I ain't carryin'
+half enough. I's pow'ful strong, I is."
+
+"Nonsense, Dinah!" said Mr. Bobbsey.  "I can manage, and your arms
+are full."
+
+"I--I wish she had Snoop," said Freddie, but he was so interested
+in watching the queer dog that he half forgot his sorrow over the
+lost cat.
+
+The dog seemed to have made great friends with Flossie. She was
+patting him on the head now, for the animal, after marching about
+on his hind legs, was down on all fours again.
+
+"Oh, mamma, he's awful nice!" exclaimed Flossie. "He's just as
+gentle, and he's soft, like the little toy lamb I used to have."
+
+"Indeed he does seem to be a gentle dog," said Mrs. Bobbsey."
+But come along now.  Don't pet him any more, or he may follow us,
+Flossie, and whoever owns him would not like it. Come on."
+
+"Forward--march!" called Freddie, strutting along the moonlit path
+as much like a soldier  as he could imitate, tired as he was.
+
+The Bobbseys and their faithful Dinah started off again toward the
+distant trolley that would take them to their home. The dog sat
+down and looked after them.
+
+"I--I wish he was ours," said Flossie wistfully, waving her hand
+to the dog.
+
+The Bobbseys had not gone on very far before Nan, looking back,
+called out:
+
+"Oh, papa, that dog is following us!"
+
+"He is?" exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey. "That's queer. He must have taken
+a sudden liking to us. But I guess he'll go back where he belongs
+pretty soon. Are you getting tired, little Fat Fireman? And you,
+my Fat Fairy?"
+
+"Oh, no, papa," laughed Flossie. "I sat down so much in the train
+that I'm glad to stand up now."
+
+"So am I," said Freddie, who made up his mind that he would not
+say he was tired if his little sister did not. And yet, truth to
+tell, the little Fat Fireman was very weary.
+
+On and on went the Bobbsey family, and soon Bert happened to look
+back, and gave a whistle of surprise.
+
+"That dog isn't going home, papa," he  said. "He's still after us,
+and look! now he's running."
+
+They all glanced back on hearing this.  Surely enough the big white
+dog was running after them, wagging his tail joyfully, and barking
+from time to time.
+
+"This will never do!" exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey.  "Whoever owns him
+may think we are trying to take him away. I'll drive him back.  Go
+home! Go back, sir!" exclaimed Papa Bobbsey in stern tones.
+
+The dog stopped wagging his tail. Then he sat down on the path,
+and calmly waited. Mr.  Bobbsey walked toward him.
+
+"Oh, don't--don't whip him, papa!" exclaimed Flossie.
+
+"I don't intend to," said Mr. Bobbsey.  "But I must be stern with
+him or he will think I'm only playing. Go back!" he cried.
+
+The dog stretched out on the path, his head down between his fore
+paws.
+
+"He--he looks--sad," said Freddie.  "Maybe he hasn't any home,
+papa."
+
+"Oh, of course a valuable dog like that has a home," declared Bert.
+
+"But maybe they didn't treat him kindly, and he is looking for a
+new one," suggested Nan, hopefully.
+
+"He doesn't seem ill-treated," spoke Mrs.  Bobbsey. "Oh, I do wish
+he'd go back, so we could go on."
+
+Mr. Bobbsey pretended to pick up a stone and throw it at the dog,
+as masters sometimes do when they do not want their dogs to follow
+them. This dog only wagged his tail, as though he thought it the
+best joke he had ever known.
+
+"Go back! Go back, I say!" cried Papa Bobbsey in a loud voice. The
+dog did not move.
+
+"I guess he won't follow us any more," went on Mr. Bobbsey. "Hurry
+along now, children. We are almost at the trolley." He turned away
+from the dog, who seemed to be asleep now, and the family went on.
+For a minute or two, as Nan could tell by looking back, the dog
+did not follow, but just as the Bobbseys were about to make a turn
+in the path, up jumped the animal and came trotting on after the
+children and their parents, wagging his tail so fast that it seemed
+as if it would come loose.
+
+"Is he coming?" asked Flossie.
+
+"He certainly is," answered Bert, who was in the rear. "I guess he
+wants us to take him home with us."
+
+"Oh, let's do it!" begged Flossie.
+
+"Please, papa," pleaded Freddie. "We haven't got Snoop now, so let
+us have a dog.  And I'm sure we could teach him to do tricks--he's
+so smart."
+
+"And so he's coming after us still!"  exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey. "Well,
+well, I don't know what to do," and he came to a stop on the path.
+
+"Couldn't we take him home just for  tonight?" asked Nan, "and then
+in the morning we could find out who owns him and return  him."
+
+"Oh, please do," begged Freddie and Flossie, impulsively.
+
+"But how can we take him on a trolley car?" asked Mr. Bobbsey. "The
+conductor would not let us."
+
+"Maybe he would--if he was a kind man," suggested Freddie. "We
+could tell him how it was, and how we lost our cat--"
+
+"And our silver cup," added Flossie.
+
+"Well, certainly the dog doesn't seem to want to go home," said
+Mr. Bobbsey, after he had tried two or three times more to drive
+the animal back. But it would not go.
+
+"Go on a little farther," suggested Mrs.  Bobbsey. "By the time we
+get to the trolley he may get tired, and go back. And if we want
+to lose him I think we can, by getting on the car quickly."
+
+"But we don't want to lose him!" cried Freddie.
+
+"No, no!" said Flossie. "We want to keep him. He can run along
+behind the trolley car. I'll ask the motorman to go slow, papa."
+
+"My! This has been a mixed-up day!" sighed Mr. Bobbsey. "I really
+don't know what to do."
+
+The dog seemed to think that he was one of the family, now. He
+came up to Flossie and Freddie and let them pat him. His tail kept
+wagging all the while.
+
+"Well, we'll see what happens when we get to the trolley," decided
+Mr. Bobbsey, thinking that there would be the best and only place
+to get rid of the dog. "Come along, children."
+
+Freddie and Flossie came on, the dog between them, and this seemed
+to suit the fine animal. He had found friends, now, he evidently
+thought. Mr. Bobbsey wondered why so valuable a dog would leave
+its home. And he was very much puzzled as to what he should do if
+the children insisted on keeping the animal, and if it came aboard
+the trolley car.
+
+"There's the car!" exclaimed Bert, as they went around another turn
+in the path and came to a road. Down it could be seen the headlight
+of an approaching trolley, and also the twin lamps of an oncoming
+automobile.
+
+"Look out for the auto, children!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+They stood at the side of the road, and as the auto came up the man
+in it slowed down his machine. It was a big car and he was alone
+in it.
+
+"Well, I declare!" exclaimed the autoist, as his engine stopped.
+"If it isn't the  Bobbsey family--twins and all! What are you doing
+here, Mr. Bobbsey?"
+
+"Why, it's Mr. Blake!" exclaimed Mr.  Bobbsey, seeing that the
+autoist was a neighbor, and a business friend of his. "Oh, our train
+was held back by a circus wreck, so we walked across the lots to
+the car. We're homeward bound from the seashore."
+
+"Well, well! A circus wreck, eh? Where did you get the dog?"
+
+"Oh, he followed us," said Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"And we're going to keep him, too!" exclaimed Flossie.
+
+"And take him in the trolley with us," added her little brother.
+
+"Well, well!" exclaimed Mr. Blake. "Say, now, I have a better plan
+than that," he went on. "Why should you folks go home in a trolley,
+when I have this big empty auto here?  Pile in, all of you, and
+I'll get you there in a jiffy. Come, Dinah, I see you, too."
+
+"Yes, sah, Massa Blake, I'se heah! Can't lose ole Dinah!"
+
+"But we lost our cat, Snoop!" said Flossie, regretfully.
+
+"And we nearly ran over an elephant," added Freddie, bound that
+his sister should not tell all the news.
+
+"Well, get in the auto," invited Mr. Blake.
+
+"Do you really mean it?" asked Mr. Bobbsey.  "Perhaps we are keeping
+you from going somewhere."
+
+"Indeed not. Pile in, and you'll soon be home."
+
+"Can we bring the dog, too?" asked Flossie.
+
+"Yes, there's plenty of room for the dog," laughed Mr. Blake. "Lift
+him in."
+
+But the strange dog did not need lifting.  He sprang into the tonneau
+of the auto as soon as the door was opened. Mr. and Mrs.  Bobbsey
+lifted in Flossie and Freddie, and Nan and Bert followed. Then in
+got Papa and Mamma Bobbsey and Mr. Blake started off.
+
+"This is lovely," said Mrs. Bobbsey with a sigh of relief. She was
+more tired than she had thought.
+
+"It certainly is kind of you, Mr. Blake," said Papa Bobbsey.
+
+"I'm only too glad I happened to meet you.  Are you children
+comfortable?"
+
+"Yep!" chorused Freddie and Flossie.
+
+"And the dog?"
+
+"We're holding him so he won't fall out," explained Flossie. She
+and her little brother had the dog between them.
+
+On went the auto, and with the telling of the adventures of the day
+the journey seemed very short. Soon the Bobbsey home was reached.
+There were lights in it, for Sam, the colored man, had been telephoned
+to, to have the place opened for the family. Sam came out on the
+stoop to greet them and his wife Dinah.
+
+"Here we are!" cried Papa Bobbsey.  "Come, Flossie--Freddie--we're
+home."
+
+Flossie and Freddie did not answer. They were fast asleep, their
+heads on the shaggy back of the big dog.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+SNAP DOES TRICKS
+
+
+
+
+"We'll have to carry them in," said Mr, Bobbsey, as he looked in
+the rear of the auto, and saw his two little twins fast asleep on
+the dog's back.
+
+"I'll take 'em," said Sam kindly. "Many a time I'se carried 'em in
+offen de porch when dey falled asleep. I'll carry 'em in."
+
+And he did, first taking Flossie, and then Freddie. Then he and
+Dinah brought in the bundles and valises, while Nan and Bert and Mr,
+and Mrs. Bobbsey followed, having bidden good-night to Mr. Blake,
+and thanking him for the ride.
+
+"Where--where are we?" asked Flossie, rubbing her eyes and looking
+around the room which she had not seen in some months.
+
+"An'--an' where's our dog?" demanded Freddie.
+
+"Oh, bless your hearts--that dog!" cried Mamma Bobbsey. "Sam took
+him out in the barn. You may see him in the morning, if he doesn't
+run away in the night."
+
+The twins looked worried over this suggestion,  until Sam said:
+
+"Oh, I locked him up good an' proper in a box stall; 'deed an' I
+did, Mrs. Bobbsey. He won't get away to-night."
+
+"That's--good," murmured Freddie, and then he fell asleep again.
+
+Soon the little twins were undressed and put to bed. Nan and Bert
+soon followed, but Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey stayed up a little later
+to talk over certain matters.
+
+"It's good to be home again," said Mr.  Bobbsey, as he looked about
+the rooms of the town house.
+
+"Yes, but we had a delightful summer,"  spoke his wife, "and the
+children are so well.  The country was delightful, and so was the
+seashore. But I think I, too, am glad to be back. It will be quite
+a task, though, to get the children ready for school. Flossie and
+Freddie will go regularly now, I suppose, and   with Nan and Bert
+in a higher class, it means plenty of work."
+
+"I suppose so," said her husband.
+
+"But Dinah is a great help," went on Mrs.  Bobbsey, for she did not
+mean to complain.  Flossie and Freddie had tried a few days in the
+kindergarten class at school, but Flossie said she did not like it,
+and, as Freddie would not go without her, their parents had taken
+them both out in the Spring.
+
+"There will be plenty of time to start them in the Fall," said Mrs.
+Bobbsey, and so it had been arranged. And now the four twins were
+all to attend the same school, which would open in about a week.
+
+Flossie and Freddie were both up early the next morning, and,
+scarcely half-dressed, they hurried out to the barn.
+
+"Whar yo' chillens gwine?" demanded Dinah, as she prepared to get
+breakfast.
+
+"Out to see our dog," answered Freddie.  "Is Sam around?"
+
+"Yes, he's out dere somewheres, washin' de  carriage. But don't
+yo' let 'at dog bite yo'."
+
+"We won't," said Freddie.
+
+"He wouldn't bite anyhow," declared Flossie.
+
+Sam opened the box stall for them, and out bounced the big white
+dog, barking in delight, and almost knocking down the twins, so
+glad was he to see them.
+
+"What shall we call him?" asked Freddie.  "Maybe we'd better name
+him Snoop, like our cat. I guess Snoop is gone forever."
+
+"No, we mustn't call him Snoop," said Flossie, "for some day our
+cat might come back, and he'd want his own name again.  We'll call
+our dog Snap, 'cause see how bright his eyes snap. Then if our cat
+comes back we'll have Snoop and Snap."
+
+"That's a good name," decided Freddie, after thinking it over.
+"Snoop and Snap. I wonder how we can make this dog stand on his
+hind legs like he did before?"
+
+"Bert snapped his fingers and he did it,"  suggested Flossie. "But
+maybe he'll do it now if you just ask him to."
+
+Freddie tried to snap his fingers, but they were too short and fat.
+Then he patted the dog on the head and said:
+
+"Stand up!"
+
+At once the dog, with a bark, did so. He sat up on his hind legs
+and then walked around. Both the children laughed.
+
+"I wonder if he can do any other tricks?" asked Flossie.
+
+"I'm going to try," said her brother.  "What trick do you want him
+to do?"
+
+"Make him lie down and roll over."
+
+"All right," spoke Freddie "Now, Snap, lie down and roll over!" he
+called. At once the fine animal did so, and then sprang up with a
+bark, and a wag of his tail, as much as to ask:
+
+"What shall I do next?"
+
+"Oh, isn't he a fine dog!" cried Flossie.  "I wonder who taught
+him those tricks?"
+
+"Let's see if he can do any more," said Freddie. "There's a barrel
+hoop over there.  Maybe he'll jump through it if we hold it up."
+
+"Oh, let's do it!" cried Flossie, as she ran to get the hoop. Snap
+barked at the sight of it, and capered about as though he knew
+just what it was for, and was pleased at the chance to do more of
+his tricks. The hoop was a   large one, and Freddie alone could not
+hold it very steady. So Flossie took hold of one side.  As soon as
+they were in position. Freddie called:
+
+"Come on now, Snap. Jump!"
+
+Snap barked, ran back a little way, turned around and came racing
+straight for the twins.  At that moment Sam Johnson came up running,
+a stick in his hand.
+
+"Heah! heah!" shouted the colored man.  "You let dem chillens alone,
+dog! Go 'way,  I tells yo'!"
+
+"That's all right, Sam," said Freddie.  "Don't scare him. He's
+our new dog Snap,  and he's going to do a trick," for the colored
+gardener had supposed the dog was running at Flossie and Freddie
+to bite them.
+
+Snap paid no attention to Sam, but raced on. When a short distance
+from where Flossie and Freddie held the hoop, Snap jumped up into
+the air, and shot straight through the wooden circle, landing quite
+a way off.
+
+"Mah gracious sakes alive!" gasped Sam, "Dat's a reg'lar circus
+trick--dat's what it am!"
+
+He scratched his head in surprise, and the stick he had picked
+up, intending to drive away the dog with, stuck straight out. In
+a moment Snap raced up, and jumped over the stick.
+
+"Oh, look!" cried Flossie.
+
+"Another trick!" exclaimed Freddie.
+
+"Mah gracious goodness!" cried Sam.  "Dat suah am wonderful!"
+
+Snap ran about barking in delight. He seemed happy to be doing
+tricks.
+
+"Let's go tell papa," said Freddie. "He'll want to know about this."
+
+"Oh, I do hope he lets us keep him," said Flossie.
+
+Mr. Bobbsey had not yet gone to his lumber office. He listened to
+what the little twins had to tell them about Snap, who lay on the
+lawn, seeming to listen to his own praises.
+
+"A trick dog; eh?" exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey.  "I wonder who owns him?"
+
+"Maybe he escaped from the circus," suggested Bert, who came out
+just then to see how his pigeons were getting along.
+
+"That's it!" cried Mr. Bobbsey. "I wonder I did not think of it
+before. The dog must have escaped from the wrecked circus train,
+and he followed us, not knowing what else to do. That accounts for
+his tricks."
+
+"But we can keep him; can't we?" begged Flossie.
+
+"Hum! I'll have to see about that," said Mr. Bobbsey slowly.
+"I suppose the circus  people will want him back, for he must be
+valuable.  Perhaps some clown trained him."
+
+"But if we can't have Snoop, our cat, we ought to have a dog,"
+asserted Freddie.
+
+"I'll try to get Snoop back," said Mr.  Bobbsey. "I'll have one
+of my men go down to the place where the wreck was, to-day, and
+inquire of the railroad men. He may be wandering about there."
+
+"Poor Snoop!" said Nan, coming out to feed some of her pet chickens,
+that Sam had looked after all summer.
+
+"And while you are about it," suggested Mrs. Bobbsey, who was on
+the front porch, "I wish, Richard, that you would see if you can
+locate that fat lady, and get back the children's  silver cup."
+
+"I will," replied Mr. Bobbsey. "I will have to write to them anyhow,
+about the dog, and at the same time I'll ask about the cup. Though
+I don't believe the fat lady meant to keep it."
+
+"Oh, no," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Probably she just held it, in the
+excitement over the wreck, and she may have left it in the car.
+But please write about it."
+
+"I will," promised Mr. Bobbsey, as he started for the office, while
+the twins gathered about the new dog, who seemed ready to do more
+tricks.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+DANNY RUGG IS MEAN
+
+
+
+
+That afternoon a small fire broke out in Mr. Bobbsey's lumber yard.
+The alarm bell rang, and Mrs. Bobbsey, hearing it, and knowing
+by the number that the blaze must be near her husband's place of
+business, came hurrying down stairs.
+
+"Oh, I must go and see how dangerous it is," she said to Dinah.
+"It is too bad to have it happen just after Mr. Bobbsey comes back
+from his summer vacation."
+
+"'Deed it am!" cried the fat, colored cook.  "But maybe it am only
+a little fire, Mrs.  Bobbsey."
+
+"I'm sure I hope so," was the answer.
+
+As Mrs. Bobbsey was hurrying down the front walk Flossie and Freddie
+saw her.
+
+"Where are you going, mamma?" they called.
+
+"Down to papa's office," she answered "There's a fire near his
+place, and--"
+
+"Oh, a fire! Then I'm going!" cried Freddie.  "Fire! Fire! Ding,
+dong! Turn on the water!" and he raced about quite excitedly.
+
+"Oh, I don't know," said Mrs. Bobbsey, in  doubt. "Where are Nan
+and Bert?" she asked.
+
+"They went down to the lake," said Flossie.  "Oh, mamma, do take
+us to the fire with you. We'll bring Snap along."
+
+"Sure," said Freddie. "Hi, Snap!" he called.
+
+The trick dog came rushing from the stable, barking and wagging
+his tail.
+
+"Well, I suppose I might as well take you," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "But
+you must stay near me. We'll leave Snap home, though."
+
+"Oh, no!" cried Freddie.
+
+"He might get lost," said Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+That was enough for Freddie. He did not want the new pet to get
+lost, so he did not make  a fuss when Sam came hurrying up to lock
+Snap in the stable. Poor Snap howled, for he wanted very much to
+go with the children.
+
+The fire was, as I have said, a small one, in part of the planing
+mill. But the engines puffed away, and spurted water, and this
+pleased Freddie. Flossie stayed close to her mother, and Mrs.
+Bobbsey, once she found out that the main lumber yard was not in
+danger, was ready to come back home. But Freddie wanted to stay
+until the fire was wholly out.
+
+Mr. Bobbsey came from his office to give some directions to the
+firemen, and saw his wife and the two twins. Then he took charge
+of them, and led them as close to the blaze as was safe.
+
+"It will soon be out," he said. "It was only some sawdust that got
+on fire."
+
+"I wish I could squirt some water!" sighed Freddie.
+
+"What's that? Do you want to be a fireman?"  asked one of the men
+in a rubber coat and a big helmet. He smiled at Mr. Bobbsey, whom
+he knew quite well.
+
+"Yes, I do," said Freddie.
+
+"Then come with me, and I'll let you help hold the hose," said the
+fireman. "I'll look after him," he went on, to Mrs. Bobbsey, and
+she nodded to show that Freddie could go.
+
+What a good time the little fellow had, standing beside a real
+fireman, and helping throw real water on a real fire! Freddie never
+forgot that. Of course the fire was almost out, and it was only
+one of the small hose lines that the fireman let the little fellow
+help hold, but, for all that, Freddie was very happy.
+
+"Did you write to the circus people to-day about our silver cup,
+and that trick dog?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey of her husband that night.
+
+"I declare, I didn't!" he exclaimed. "The fire upset me so that it
+slipped my mind. I'll do it the first thing to-morrow. There is no
+special hurry. How is the dog, by the way?"
+
+"Oh, he's just lovely!" cried Flossie.
+
+"And I do hope we can keep him forever!"  exclaimed Freddie.
+"'Specially since Snoop is gone."
+
+"Did you hear anything about our cat?" asked Nan, of her father.
+
+"No. I sent a man to the railroad company, but no stray cat had
+been found. I am afraid Snoop is lost, children."
+
+"Oh dear!" cried Flossie.
+
+The next day, having learned from the railroad company where the
+circus had gone after the wreck, Mr. Bobbsey sent a letter to the
+manager, explaining about the lost silver cup, and the found circus
+dog. He asked that the fat lady be requested to write to him, to
+let him know if she had taken the cup by accident, and Mr. Bobbsey
+also wanted to know if the circus had lost a trick dog.
+
+"There!" he exclaimed as he sent the letter  to be mailed, "now
+we'll just have to wait for an answer."
+
+Nan and Bert, and Flossie and Freddie were soon having almost as
+much fun as they had had at the seashore and in the country. Their
+town playmates, who had come back from their vacations, called at
+the Bobbsey home, and made up games and all sorts of sports.
+
+"For," said Grace Lavine, with whom Nan sometimes played, "school
+will soon begin, and we want to have all the fun we can until then."
+
+"Let's jump rope," proposed Nan.
+
+"All right," agreed Grace. "Here comes Nellie Parks, and we'll see
+who can jump the most."
+
+"No, you mustn't do that," said Nan, "Don't you remember how you
+once tried to jump a hundred, and you fainted?"
+
+"Indeed I do," said Grace. "I'm not going to be so silly as to try
+that again. We'll only jump a little."
+
+Soon Nan and her chums were having a good time in the yard.
+
+Charley Mason, with whom Bert sometimes played, came over, and the
+two boys went for a row on the lake, in Bert's boat. Some little
+friends of Flossie and Freddie came over, and they had fun watching
+Snap do tricks.
+
+For the circus dog, as he had come to be called, seemed to be able
+to do some new trick each day. He could "play dead," and "say his
+prayers," besides turning a back somersault.  The little twins,
+who seemed to claim more share in Snap than did Nan and Bert, did
+not really know how many tricks their pet could do.
+
+"Maybe you'll have to give him back to the circus," said Willie
+Flood, one of Freddie's chums.
+
+"Well, if we do, papa may buy him, or get another dog like him,"
+spoke Flossie.
+
+A few days after this, when Bert was out in the front yard,
+watering the grass with a hose, along came Danny Rugg. Now Danny
+went to the same school that Bert did, but few of the boys and none
+of the girls, liked Danny, because he was often rough, and would
+hit them or want to fight, or would play mean tricks on them. Still,
+sometimes Danny behaved  himself, and then the boys were glad to
+have him on their baseball nine as he was a good hitter and thrower,
+and he could run fast.
+
+"Hello, Bert!" exclaimed Danny, leaning on the fence. "I hear you
+have a trick circus dog here."
+
+"Who told you?" asked Bert, wondering what Danny would say next.
+
+"Oh, Jack Parker. He says you found him."
+
+"I didn't," spoke Bert, spraying a bed of   geranium flowers. "He
+followed us the night of the circus wreck."
+
+"Well, you took him all the same. I know who owns him, too; and
+I'm going to tell that you've got him."
+
+"Oh, are you?" asked Bert. "Well, we think he belongs to the circus,
+and my father has written about it, so you needn't trouble yourself."
+
+"He doesn't belong to any circus," went on  Danny. "That dog belongs
+to Mr. Peterson, who lives over in Millville. He lost a trick dog,
+and he advertised for it. He's going to give a reward. I'm going
+to tell him, and get the money."
+
+"You can't take our dog away!" cried Freddie, coming up just then.
+"Don't you dare do it, Danny Rugg."
+
+"Yes, I will!" exclaimed the mean boy, who often teased the smaller
+Bobbsey twins.  "You won't have that dog after to-day."
+
+"Don't mind him, Freddie," said Bert in a low voice. "He's trying
+to scare you."
+
+"Oh, I am eh?" cried Danny. "I'll show you what I'm trying to do.
+I'll tell on you   for keeping a dog that don't belong to you,  and
+you'll be arrested--all of you."
+
+Freddie looked worried, and tears came into his eyes. Bert saw
+this, and was angry at Danny for being so mean.
+
+"Don't be afraid, Freddie," said Bert.  "Look, I'll let you squirt
+the hose, and you can pretend to be a fireman."
+
+"Oh, fine!" cried Freddie, in delight, as he took the nozzle from
+his older brother.
+
+Just how it happened neither of them could tell, but the stream of
+water shot right at Danny Rugg, and wet him all over in a second.
+
+"Hi there!" he cried. "Stop that! I'll pay you back for that, Fred
+Bobbsey," and he jumped over the fence and ran toward the little
+fellow.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+AT SCHOOL
+
+
+
+
+Freddie saw Danny coming, and did the most natural thing in the
+world. He dropped the hose and ran. And you know what a hose, with
+water bursting from the nozzle will sometimes do if you don't hold
+it just right.  Well, this hose did that. It seemed to aim itself
+straight at Danny, and again the rough boy received a charge of
+water full in the face.
+
+"Ha--ha--here! You quit that!" he gasped. "I'll fix you for that!"
+
+The water got in his eyes and mouth, and for a moment he could not
+see. But with his handkerchief he soon had his eyes cleared, and
+then he came running toward Bert.
+
+Danny Rugg was larger than Bert, and stronger, and, in addition,
+was a bullying sort of chap, almost always ready to fight someone
+smaller than himself.
+
+But what Bert lacked in size and strength   he made up in a bold
+spirit. He was not at all afraid of Danny, even when the bully came
+rushing at him. Bert stood his ground manfully.  He had taken up
+the hose where Freddie  had dropped it, and the water was spurting
+out in a solid stream. Freddie, having gotten a safe distance away,
+now turned and stood looking at Danny.
+
+Danny, too, had halted and was fairly glaring  at Bert, who looked
+at him a bit anxiously.  More than once he and the bully had come
+to blows, and sometimes Bert had gotten the best of it. Still he
+did not like a fight.
+
+"I'll get you yet, Freddie Bobbsey!" cried Danny, shaking his fist
+at the little fellow.  Whereupon Freddie turned and ran toward the
+house. Danny saw that he could not catch him in time, and so he
+turned to Bert.
+
+"You put him up to do that--to douse me with water!" cried Danny
+angrily.
+
+"I did not," said Bert quietly. "It was just an accident. I'm
+sorry---"
+
+"You are not! I say you did that on purpose--or  you told Freddie
+to, and I'm going to pay you back!"
+
+"I tell you it was an accident," insisted Bert. "But if you want
+to think Freddie did it on purpose I can't stop you."
+
+"Well, I'm going to hit you just the same," growled Danny, and he
+stepped toward Bert.
+
+"You'd better look out," said Bert, with  just a little smile.
+"There's still a lot of water in this hose," and he brought the
+nozzle  around in front, ready to squirt on Danny if the bad boy
+should come too near.
+
+Danny came to a stop.
+
+"Don't you dare put any more water on  me!" cried the bully. "If
+you do, I'll----"  He doubled up his fists and glared at Bert.
+
+"Then don't you come any nearer if you don't want to get wet,"
+said Bert. "This hose might sprinkle you by accident, the same as
+it did when Freddie had it," he added.
+
+"Huh! I know what kind of an accident that was!" spoke Danny, with
+a sneer.
+
+"You'd better get out of the way," went on Bert quietly. "I want to
+sprinkle that flower bed near where you are, and if you'll   there
+you might get wet, and it wouldn't be my fault."
+
+"I'll fix you!" growled Danny, springing forward. Bert got ready
+with the hose, and there might have been more trouble, except that
+Sam, the colored man, came out on the lawn. He saw that something
+out of the ordinary was going on, and breaking into a run he called
+out:
+
+"Am anyt'ing de mattah, Massa Bert? Am yo' habin' trouble wif
+anybody?"
+
+"Well, I guess it's all over now," said Bert,  as he saw Danny turn
+and walk toward the gate.
+
+"If yo' need any help, jest remembah dat I'm around," spoke Sam,
+with a wide grin that showed his white teeth in his black, but
+kindly face. "I'll be right handy by, Massa Bert, yes, I will!"
+
+"All right," said Bert, as he went on watering  the flowers.
+
+"Huh! You needn't think I'm afraid of  you!" boasted Danny, but he
+kept on out of the gate just the same. Sam went back to his work,
+of weeding the vegetable garden   and Bert watered the flowers.
+Pretty soon Freddie came back.
+
+"Did--did Danny do anything to you?" the little fellow wanted to
+know.
+
+"No, Freddie, but the hose did something to him," said Bert.
+
+"Oh, did it wet him again?"
+
+"That's what it did."
+
+"Ha! Ha!" laughed Freddie. "I wish I'd been here to see it, Bert."
+
+"Well, why did you run?"
+
+"Oh, I--I thought maybe--mamma might want me," answered Freddie,
+but Bert understood, and smiled. Then he let Freddie finish watering
+the flowers, after which Freddie played he was a fireman, saving
+houses from burning by means of the hose.
+
+Snap, the trick dog came running out, followed by Flossie, who had
+just been washed and combed, her mother having put a clean dress
+on her.
+
+"Oh, Freddie," said the little girl, "let's make Snap do some
+tricks. See if he will jump over the stream of water from the hose."
+
+"All right," agreed her little brother. "I'll   squirt the water
+out straight, and you stand on one side of it and call Snap over.
+Then he'll jump."
+
+Flossie tried this, but at first the dog did  not seem to want to
+do this particular trick.  He played soldier, said his prayers,
+stood on  his hind legs, and turned a somersault. But  he would
+not jump over the water.
+
+"Come, Snap, Snap!" called Flossie.  "Jump!"
+
+Snap raced about and barked, and seemed to be having all sorts of
+fun, but jump he would not until he got ready. Then, when he did,
+Freddie accidentally lowered the nozzle and Snap was soaked.
+
+But the dog did not mind the water in the least. In fact he seemed
+to like it, for the day was warm, and he stood still and let Freddie
+wet him all over. Then Snap rolled about on the lawn, Freddie and
+Flossie taking turns sprinkling.
+
+And, as might be expected, considerable water got on the two children,
+and when Snap shook himself, as he often did, to get some of the
+drops off his shaggy coat, he gave   Flossie and her clean dress
+a regular shower bath.
+
+Nan, coming from the house saw this.  She ran up to Flossie, who
+had the hose just then, crying:
+
+"Flossie Bobbsey! Oh, you'll get it when mamma sees you! She cleaned
+you all up, and now look at yourself!"
+
+"She can't see--there's no looking glass here," said Freddie, with
+a laugh.
+
+"And you're just as bad!" cried Nan.  "You'd both better go in the
+house right away, and stop playing with the hose."
+
+"We're through, anyhow," said Freddie.  "You ought to see Snap jump
+over the water."
+
+"Oh, you children!" cried Nan, with a shake of her head. She seemed
+like a little mother to them at times, though she was only four
+years older.
+
+Mrs. Bobbsey was very sorry to see Flossie so wet and bedraggled,
+and said:
+
+"You should have known better than to play with water with a clean
+dress on, Flossie.  Now I must punish you. You will have to   stay
+in the house for an hour, and so will Freddie."
+
+Poor little Bobbsey twins! But then it was not a very severe
+punishment, and really some was needed. It was hard when two of
+their little playmates came and called for them to come out. But
+Mrs. Bobbsey insisted on the two remaining in until the hour was
+at an end.
+
+Then, when they had on dry garments, and could go out, there was
+no one with whom to play.
+
+"I'm not going to squirt the hose ever again," said Freddie.
+
+"Neither am I," said his sister. "Never, never!"
+
+Snap didn't say anything. He lay on the porch asleep, being cooled
+off after his sport with the water.
+
+"I--I wish we had our cat, Snoop, back," said Flossie. "Then we
+wouldn't have played in the water."
+
+"That's so," agreed Freddie. "I wonder where he can be?"
+
+They asked their father that night if any   of the railroad men
+had seen their pet, but he said none had, and added:
+
+"I'm afraid you'll have to get along without  Snoop. He seems to
+have disappeared.  But, anyhow, you have Snap."
+
+"But some one may come along and claim him," said Freddie. "That
+Danny Rugg says he belongs to Mr. Peterson in Millville, father,"
+said Bert.
+
+"Well, I'll call Mr. Peterson up on the telephone to-morrow, and
+find out," spoke Mr.  Bobbsey. "That much will be settled, at any
+rate."
+
+"Did you hear anything from the circus people about the fat lady?"
+asked Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+"Yes, but no news," was her husband's answer. "The circus has gone
+to Cuba and Porto Rico for the winter, and I will have to write
+there. It will be some time before we can expect an answer, though,
+as I suppose the show will be traveling from place to place and
+mail down there is not like it is up here.  But we may find the
+fat lady and the cup some day."
+
+"And Snoop, too," put in Nan.
+
+"Yes, Snoop too."
+
+One fact consoled the Bobbseys in their trouble over their lost
+pet and cup. This was the answer received by Mr. Bobbsey from Mr.
+Peterson. That gentleman had lost a valuable dog, but it was a
+small poodle, and unlike big Snap. So far no one had claimed the
+trick dog, and it seemed likely that the children could keep him.
+They were very glad about this.
+
+"Oh dear!" exclaimed Bert, one afternoon  a few days following the
+fun with the hose, "school begins Monday. Only three more days of
+vacation!"
+
+"I think you have had a long vacation,"  returned Mrs. Bobbsey,
+"and if Freddie and  Flossie are going to do such tricks as they
+did the other day, with the hose, I, for one, shall be glad that
+you are in school."
+
+"I like school," said Nan, "There are a lot of new girls coming
+this term, I hear."
+
+"Any new fellows?" asked Bert, more interested.
+
+"I don't know. There is a new teacher in  the kindergarten, though,
+where Flossie and Freddie will go. Nellie Parks has met her, and
+says she's awfully nice."
+
+"That's good," spoke Flossie. "I like nice teachers."
+
+"Well, I hope you and Freddie will get along well," said Mamma
+Bobbsey. "You are getting older you know, and you must soon begin
+to study hard."
+
+"We will," they promised.
+
+The school bell, next Monday morning, called to many rather unwilling
+children. The long vacation was over and class days had begun once
+more. The four Bobbseys went off together to the building, which
+was only a few blocks from their home. Mr. Tetlow was the principal,
+and there were half a dozen lady teachers.
+
+"Hello, Nan," greeted Grace Lavine.  "May I sit with you this term?"
+
+"Oh, I was going to ask her," said Nellie Parks.
+
+"Well, I was first," spoke Grace, with a pout.
+
+"We'll be in the room where there are   three seated desks." said
+Nan with a smile.  "Maybe we three can be together."
+
+"Oh, we'll ask teacher!" cried Nellie.  "That will be lovely!"
+
+"I'm going to sit with Freddie," declared Flossie. "We're to be
+together--mamma said so."
+
+"Of course, dear," agreed Nan. "I'll speak to your teacher about
+it."
+
+Bert was walking in the rear with Charley Mason, when Danny Rugg
+came around a corner.
+
+"I know what I'm going to do to you after school, Bert Bobbsey!"
+called the bully. "You just wait and see."
+
+"All right--I'll wait," spoke Bert quietly.  "I'm not afraid."
+
+By this time they were at the school, and it was nearly time for the
+last bell to ring.  Danny went off to join some of his particular
+chums, shaking his fist at Bert as he went.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+BERT SEES SOMETHING
+
+
+
+
+Lessons were not very well learned that first day in school, but
+this is generally the case when the Fall term opens after the Summer
+vacation.
+
+Just as were the Bobbsey twins, nearly all the other pupils were
+thinking of what good times they had had in the country, or at the
+seashore, and in consequence little attention was paid to reading,
+spelling, arithmetic and geography.
+
+But Principal Tetlow and his teachers were prepared for this,
+and they were sure that, in another day or so, the boys and girls
+would settle down and do good work. Many of the children were in
+new rooms and different classes, and this did not make them feel
+so much "at home" as before vacation.
+
+Nan Bobbsey's first duty, after reporting to her new teacher, was
+to go to the kindergarten room, and ask the teacher there if Flossie
+and Freddie might sit together.
+
+"You see," Nan explained, "this is really their first real school
+work. They attended a few times before, but did not stay long."
+
+"I see," spoke the pretty kindergarten instructor  with a laugh,
+"and we must make it as pleasant for them this time as we can, so
+they will want to stay. Yes, my dear, Flossie and Freddie may sit
+together, and I'll look after them as much as I can. But, oh, there
+are such a lot of little tots!" and she looked about the room that
+seemed overflowing  with small boys and girls.
+
+Some were playing and talking, telling of their summer experiences.
+Others seemed frightened, and stood against the wall bashfully,
+little girls holding to the hands of their little brothers.
+
+Nan looked for Freddie and Flossie. She saw her little sister
+trying to comfort a small girl who was almost ready to cry, while
+Freddie,  like the manly little fellow he was, had charge of a small
+chap in whose eyes   were two large tears, just ready to fall. It
+was his first day at school.
+
+"Oh, I am sure your little twin brother and sister will get along
+all right," said the kindergarten teacher, with a smile to Nan, as
+she saw what Flossie and Freddie were doing.  "They are too cute
+for anything--the little dears!"
+
+"And they are very good," said Nan, "only of course they
+do--things--sometimes."
+
+"They wouldn't be real children if they didn't," answered the
+teacher.
+
+This was during a recess that had come after  the classes were first
+formed. On her way back to her room, to see if she could arrange
+to sit with Grace and Nellie at one of the new big desks, Nan saw
+her brother Bert.  He looked a little worried, and Nan asked at
+once:
+
+"What is the matter, Bert? Haven't you got a nice teacher?"
+
+"Oh, yes, she's fine!" exclaimed Bert.  "There's nothing the matter
+at all."
+
+"Yes there is," insisted Nan. "I can tell  by your face. It's that
+Danny Rugg; I'm   sure. Oh, Bert, is he bothering you again?"
+
+"Well, he said he was going to."
+
+"Then why don't you go straight and tell Mr. Tetlow? He'll make
+Danny behave. I'll go tell him myself!"
+
+"Don't you dare, Nan!" cried Bert. "All the fellows would call me
+'sissy,' if I let you do that. Never mind, I can look out for my
+self. I'm not afraid of Danny."
+
+"Oh, Bert, I hope you don't get into a fight."
+
+"I won't, Nan--if I can help it. At least I won't hit first, but
+if he hits me---"
+
+Bert looked as though he knew what he would do in that case.
+
+"Oh dear!" cried Nan, "aren't you boys just awful!"
+
+However, she made up her mind that if Danny got too bad she would
+speak to the principal about him, whether her brother wanted her
+to or not.
+
+"He won't know it," thought Nan.
+
+She had no trouble in getting permission from her teacher for
+herself and her two friends to sit together, and soon they had
+moved their books and other things to one of the long desks that
+had room for three pupils.
+
+Meanwhile Flossie and Freddie got along very well in the kindergarten.
+At first, just as the others did, they gave very little attention
+to what the teacher wanted them to learn, but she was very patient,
+and soon all the class was gathered about the sand table, in the
+little low chairs, making fairy cities, caves, and even make-believe
+seashore places.
+
+"This is like the one where we were this Summer," said Flossie, as
+she made a hole in her sand pile to take the place of the ocean.
+"If I had water and a piece of wood I could show you where there
+was a shipwreck," she said to the girl next to her.
+
+"That isn't the way it was," spoke Freddie, from the other side of
+the room. "There was more sand at the seashore than on this whole
+table--yes, on ten tables like this."
+
+"There was not!" cried Flossie.
+
+"There was too!" insisted her brother.
+
+"Children--children!" called the teacher.  "You must not argue
+like that--ever--in   school, or out of it. Now we will sing our
+work-song, and after that we will march with the flags," and she
+went to the piano to play.  All the little ones liked this, and
+the dispute of Flossie and Freddie was soon forgotten.
+
+Bert kept thinking of what might happen between himself and Danny
+Rugg when school was out, and when his teacher asked him what the
+Pilgrim Fathers did when they first came to settle in New England
+Bert looked up in surprise, and said:
+
+"They fought."
+
+"Fought!" exclaimed the teacher. "The book says they gave thanks."
+
+"Well, I meant they fought the--er--the Indians," stammered Bert.
+
+Poor Bert was thinking of what might take place between himself
+and the bully.
+
+"Well, yes, they did fight the Indians," admitted the teacher, "but
+that wasn't what I was thinking of. I will ask you another question
+in history."
+
+But I am not going to tire you with an account of what went on in
+the classrooms.  There were mostly lessons there, such as you   have
+yourselves, and I know you don't care  to read about them.
+
+Bert did not see Danny Rugg at the noon recess, when the Bobbsey
+twins and the other children went home for lunch. But when school
+was let out in the afternoon, and when Bert was talking to Charley
+Mason about a new way of making a kite, Danny Rugg, accompanied
+by several of his chums, walked up to Bert. It was in a field some
+distance from the school, and no houses were near.
+
+"Now I've got you, Bert Bobbsey!" taunted Danny, as he advanced
+with doubled-up fists.  "What did you want to squirt the hose on
+me that time for?"
+
+"I told you it was an accident," said Bert quietly.
+
+"And I say you did it on purpose. I said I'd get even with you,
+and now I'm going to."
+
+"I don't want to fight, Danny," said Bert quietly.
+
+"Huh! he's afraid!" sneered Jack Westly, one of Danny's friends.
+
+"Yes, he's a coward!" taunted Danny.
+
+"I'm not!" cried Bert stoutly.
+
+"Then take that!" exclaimed Danny, and he gave Bert a push that
+nearly knocked him down. Bert put out a hand to save himself and
+struck Danny, not really meaning to.
+
+"There! He hit you back!" cried one boy.
+
+"Yes, go on in, now, Dan, and beat him!" said another
+
+"Oh, I'll fix him now," boasted Danny, circling around Bert. Bert
+was carefully watching.  He did not mean to let Danny get the best
+of him if he could help it, much as he did not like to fight.
+
+Danny struck Bert on the chest, and Bert hit the bully on the
+cheek. Then Danny jumped forward swiftly and tried to give Bert a
+blow on the head. But Bert stepped to one side, and Danny slipped
+down to the ground.
+
+As he did so a white box fell from his pocket. Bert knew what kind
+of a box it was, and what was in it, and he knew now, what had
+stained Danny's fingers so yellow, and what made his clothes have
+such a queer smell.  For the box had in it cigarettes.
+
+Danny saw where it had fallen, and picked   it up quickly. Then he
+came running at Bert again, but a boy called:
+
+"Look out! Here comes Mr. Tetlow, the principal!"
+
+This was a signal for all the boys, even Bert, to run, for, though
+school was out, they still did not want to be caught at a fight by
+one of the teachers, or Mr. Tetlow.
+
+"Anyhow, you knocked him down, Bert," said Charley Mason, as he
+ran on with Bert.  "You beat!"
+
+"He did not--I slipped," said Danny. "I can fight him, and I will,
+too, some day."
+
+"I'm not afraid of you," answered Bert.
+
+Mr. Tetlow did not appear to have seen the fight that amounted to
+so little. Perhaps he pretended not to.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+OFF TO THE WOODS
+
+
+
+
+Whether Danny Rugg was afraid the principal had seen him trying to
+force a fight on Bert, or whether the unexpected fall that came to
+him, caused it, no one knew, but certainly, for the next few days,
+Danny let Bert alone. When he passed him he scowled, or shook his
+fist, or muttered something about "getting even," but this was all.
+
+Perhaps it was the thought of what Bert had seen fall from Danny's
+pocket that made the bully less anxious to keep up the quarrel.
+At any rate, Bert was left alone and he was glad of it. He was not
+afraid, but he liked peace.
+
+The school days went on, and the classes settled down to their work
+for the long Winter term. And the thought of the snow and   ice
+that would comparatively soon be with them, made the Bobbsey twins
+rejoice.
+
+"Charley Mason and I are going to make a dandy big bob this year,"
+said Bert one day.  "It's going to carry ten fellows."
+
+"And no girls?" asked Nan with a smile.  She was walking along
+behind her brother with Grace and Nellie.
+
+"Sure, we'll let you girls ride once in a while," said Charley, as
+he caught up to his chum. "But you can't steer."
+
+"I steered a bob once," said Grace, who was quite athletic for her
+age. "It was Danny Rugg's, too."
+
+"Pooh! His is a little one alongside the one Charley and I are
+going to make!" exclaimed Bert. "Ours will be hard to steer, and
+it's going to have a gong on it to tell folks to get out of the
+way."
+
+"That's right," agreed Charley. "And we'd better start it right
+away, Bert. It may soon snow."
+
+"It doesn't feel so now," spoke Nan. "It is very warm. It feels
+more like ice cream cones."
+
+"And if you'll come with me I'll treat you all to some," exclaimed
+Nellie Parks, whose father was quite well off. "I have some of my
+birthday money left."
+
+"Oh, but there are five of us!" cried Nan, counting. "That is too
+much--twenty-five cents, Nellie."
+
+"I've got fifty, and really it is very hot to-day."
+
+It was warm, being the end of September, with Indian Summer near
+at hand.
+
+"Well, let's go to Johnson's," suggested Nellie. "They have the
+best cream."
+
+"Oh, here comes Flossie and Freddie!" exclaimed Nan. "We don't want
+to take them, Nellie. That means---"
+
+"Of course I'll take them!" exclaimed Nellie, generously. "I've
+got fifty cents, I told you."
+
+"I'll give them each a penny and let them run along home," offered
+Bert,
+
+"No, I'm going to treat them, too," insisted Nellie. "Come on!" she
+called to the little twins, "we're going to get ice cream cones,
+it's so warm."
+
+"Oh, goodie!" cried Flossie. "I was just wishing for one."
+
+"So was I," added her brother.
+
+"And I'll ask you to my party next week," the little girl went on.
+"I'm going to have one on my birthday."
+
+"Oh, are you really, Flossie?" asked Nan.  "I hadn't heard about
+it."
+
+"Yep--I am. Mamma said I could, but she told me not to tell. I don't
+care, I wanted Nellie to know, as she's going to treat us to cones."
+
+"And it's half my party, 'cause my birthday's the same day,"
+explained Freddie. "So you can come to my party at the same time,
+Nellie."
+
+"Thank you, dear, I shall. Now let's hurry to the store, for it's
+getting warmer all the while."
+
+The ice cream in the funny little cones was much enjoyed by all.
+Bert and Charley walked on together eating, and talking of the bob
+sled they were going to make. They passed Danny Rugg, who looked
+rather enviously  at them.
+
+"Hey, Charley," called Danny, "come here, I want to speak to you."
+
+"I'm busy now," answered Charley. "Bert and I have something to
+do."
+
+"So have I. I've got a dandy plan."
+
+"Well, I'll see you later," spoke Charley,
+
+He had once been quite friendly with Danny, but he grew not to like
+his ways, and so became more chummy with Bert, who was very glad,
+for he liked Charley.
+
+The two boys went on to Bert's barn, where they were going to
+build the bob sled. The girls, with Flossie and Freddie, went on
+the Bobbsey lawn, where there were some easy chairs. They sat in
+the shade of the trees,  and Freddie had Snap do some of his tricks
+for the visitors.
+
+"Can he jump through a hoop, covered with paper as they do in the
+circus?" asked Nellie.
+
+"Oh, we never thought to try that," said Freddie. "I'm going to make
+one," and, filled with this new idea, he hurried into the house.
+
+"Dinah," he said, "I want some paper and paste."
+
+"Land sakes, chile! what yo' gwine t' do now?" asked the colored
+cook. "Make a kite, an' take Snoop up in de air laik yo' brother
+Bert done once?"
+
+"No, we're not going to do that," answered the little boy. "We're
+going to cover a hoop with paper, and make Snap jump through it,
+like in a circus."
+
+"Mah goodness mustard pot!" cried Dinah.  "What will yo' all be up
+to next?"
+
+"I don't know," answered Freddie. "But will you make me some paste,
+Dinah? And you know we haven't got Snoop, anyhow, so we couldn't
+send him up on a kite tail," added Freddie.
+
+"Deah me! Yo' chilluns done make me do de mostest wuk!" complained
+Dinah, but she laughed, which showed that she did not really mean
+it, and set at mixing some flour and water for the paste.
+
+Flossie and Freddie insisted on making the paper covered hoop
+themselves. They started, but they got so much of the sticky stuff
+on their hands and faces that Nan feared they would soil their
+clothes, so she insisted on   being allowed to do the pasting for
+them.
+
+"But we can help, can't we?" asked Freddie.
+
+"Yes," said Nan.
+
+Even for Nan covering a hoop with paper was not as easy as she
+thought it would be.  Grace and Nellie helped, but sometimes the
+wind would blow the paper away just as they were ready to fold it
+around the rim of the hoop. Then the paste would get on the girls'
+hands.
+
+"What are you doing?" asked Bert, as he and Charley came from the
+barn. They had to stop work on their job, as they could not find a
+long enough plank. The decided to get one from Mr. Bobbsey's lumber
+yard, later.
+
+"We're going to have Snap do the circus trick of jumping through
+a paper hoop," explained Nan. "Only we can't seem to get the hoop
+made."
+
+"I'll do it," offered Bert, and as he and Charley had often pasted
+paper on their kite frames they had better luck, and soon the hoop
+was ready.
+
+"Come, Snap!" called Freddie, it having   been settled that he and
+Flossie were to hold the hoop for the dog to leap through. Snap,
+always ready for fun, jumped up from the grass where he had been
+sleeping, and frisked about, barking loudly.
+
+"Now you hold him there, Charley," directed Bert, pointing to a spot
+back of where Freddie and Flossie stood. "Then I'll go over here
+and call him. He'll come running, and when he gets near enough,
+Freddie, you and Flossie hold up the paper hoop. He'll go right
+through it."
+
+It worked out just as the children had planned. Snap raced away from
+Charley, when he heard Bert calling. He ran right between Flossie
+and Freddie, who raised the hoop just in time.
+
+"Rip! Tear!" burst the paper, and Snap sailed through the hoop just
+as he probably had often done in the circus, perhaps from the back
+of a horse.
+
+"Oh, that was fine!" cried Flossie. "Let's make another hoop!"
+
+"Let's make a lot of 'em, and have a circus with Snap, and charge
+money to see him, and   then we can buy a lot of ice cream for our
+party!" said Freddie.
+
+"Oh, yes!" agreed his sister.
+
+Well, they did make more hoops, and Snap seemed to enjoy jumping
+through them. But when Mrs. Bobbsey heard about the circus plans
+she decided it would make too much confusion.
+
+"Besides, you have to help me get ready for your party," she said
+to the two little twins.
+
+This took their mind off the proposed circus, but for several days
+after that they had much fun making hoops for Snap to jump through.
+
+Bert and Charley got a long plank from the lumber yard, and spent
+much time after school in the Bobbsey barn, working over their bob
+sled. It was harder than they had thought it would be, and they
+had to call in some other boys to help them. Mr. Bobbsey, too, gave
+his son some advice about how to build it.
+
+Flossie and Freddie liked it very much in school. The kindergarten
+teacher was very   kind, and took an interest in all her pupils.
+
+"Oh, mamma!" cried Flossie, coming in one day from school, "I've
+learned how to make a house."
+
+"And I can make a lantern, and a chain to hang it on, and I can put
+it in front of Flossie's house!" exclaimed Freddie. "And, please,
+mother, may I have some bread and jam. I'm awful hungry."
+
+"Yes, dear, go ask Dinah," said Mrs. Bobbsey, with a smile. "And
+then you may show me how you make houses and lanterns and a chain.
+Are they real?"
+
+"No," said Flossie, "they're only paper, but they look nice."
+
+"I'm sure they must," said their mother.
+
+After each of the twins had been given a large slice of bread and
+butter and jam, they showed the latest thing they had learned at
+school. Flossie did manage to cut out a house, that had a chimney
+on it, and a door, besides two windows.
+
+Freddie took several little narrow strips of paper, and pasting the
+ends together, made a lot of rings. Each ring before being pasted,
+was slipped into another, and soon he had a paper chain. To make
+the lantern he used a piece of paper made into a roll, with slits
+all around the middle of it where the light would have come out
+had there been a candle in it.  And the handle was a narrow slip
+of paper pasted over the top of the lantern.
+
+"Very fine indeed," said Mamma Bobbsey.  "Run out now to play. If
+you stay in the house too much you will soon lose all the lovely
+tan you got in the country, and at the seashore."
+
+"Children," said the principal to the Bobbseys  and all the others
+in school the next day, "I have a little treat for you. To-morrow
+will be a holiday, and, as the weather is very warm, we will close
+the school at noon, and go off in the woods for a little picnic."
+
+"Oh, good!" cried a number of the boys and girls, and, though it
+was against the rules to speak aloud during the school hours, none
+of the teachers objected.
+
+"But I expect you all to have perfect marks from now until Friday,"
+Mr. Tetlow went on.  "You may bring your lunches to school with
+you Friday morning, if your parents will let you, and we will leave
+here at noon, and go to Ward's woods."
+
+It was rather hard work to study after such good news, but, somehow,
+the pupils managed it. Finally Friday came, and nearly every boy
+and girl came to school with a basket or bundle holding his or
+her lunch. Mrs.  Bobbsey put up two baskets for her children, Nan
+taking one and Bert the other.
+
+"Oh, we'll have a lovely time!" cried Freddie, dancing about on
+his little fat legs.
+
+Twelve o'clock came, and with each teacher at the head of her class,
+and Mr. Tetlow marching in front of all, the whole school started
+off for the woods.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+A SCARE
+
+
+
+
+The way to the woods where the little school outing was to be held
+ran close to the road on which the Bobbsey house stood. As Freddie
+and Flossie, with Nan and Bert, marched along with the others,
+Freddie cried out:
+
+"Oh, I hope we see mamma, and then we can wave to her."
+
+"Yes, and maybe she'll come with us," suggested Flossie. "Wouldn't
+that be nice?"
+
+"Pooh!" exclaimed Bert "Mamma's too busy to come to a picnic to-day.
+She's expecting company."
+
+"Yes," added Nan, "the minister and his wife are coming, and mamma's
+cooking a lot of things."
+
+"Why, does a minister eat more than other folks?" asked Freddie.
+"If they does, I'm going to be a minister when I grow up."
+
+"I thought you were going to be a fireman," said Bert.
+
+"Well, I can be a fireman week days and a minister on Sundays,"
+said the little fellow, thus solving the problem. "But do they eat
+so much, Nan?"
+
+"No, of course not, only mamma wants to be polite to them, so she
+has a lot of things cooked up, so that if they don't like one thing
+they can have another. Folks always give their best to the minister."
+
+"Then I'm surely going to be one, too," declared Flossie. "I like
+good things to eat.  I hope our minister isn't very hungry, 'cause
+then there'll be some left for us when we come home from this
+picnic."
+
+"Why, Flossie!" cried Nan. "We have a lovely lunch with us; plenty,
+I'm sure."
+
+"Well, I'm awful hungry, Nan," said the little girl. "Besides,
+Sammie Jones, and his sister Julia, haven't any lunch at all. I
+saw them, and they looked terrible hungry.  Couldn't we give them
+some of ours; if we have so much at home?"
+
+"Of course we could, and it is very kind   of you to think of them,"
+said Nan, as she patted her little sister on her head. "I'll look
+after Sammie and Julia when we get to the grove."
+
+In spite of what Nan and Bert had said about Mrs. Bobbsey being
+very busy, Flossie and Freddie looked anxiously in the direction
+of their house as they walked along. But no sight of their mother
+greeted them. They did see a friend, however, and this was none
+other than Snap, their new dog, who, with many barks and wags of
+his fluffy tail, ran out to meet his little masters and mistresses.
+
+"Here, Snap! Snap!" called Freddie.  "Come on, old fellow!" and
+the dog leaped all about him.
+
+"Let's take him to the picnic with us," suggested Flossie. "We can
+have lots of fun."
+
+"And he can eat the scraps," said Nan.  "Shall we, Bert?"
+
+"I don't care. But maybe Mr. Tetlow wouldn't like it."
+
+"You ask him, Bert," pleaded Flossie.  "Tell him Snap will do tricks
+to amuse us."
+
+Bert good-naturedly started ahead to speak   to the principal,
+who was talking with some of the teachers, planning games for the
+little folk. Flossie and Freddie were patting their pet, when Danny
+Rugg, and one of his friends came along.
+
+"That dog can't come to our picnic!" said Danny, with a scowl. "He
+might bite some of us."
+
+"Snap never bites!" cried Freddie.
+
+"Of course not," said Flossie.
+
+"Well, he can't come to this picnic!" spoke Danny, angrily. "Go on
+home!" he cried, sharply, stooping to pick up a stone. Snap growled
+and showed his teeth.
+
+"There!" cried Danny. "I told you he'd bite."
+
+"He will not, Danny Rugg!" exclaimed Nan, who had gone up front
+for a minute to speak to some of the older girls. "He only growled
+because you acted mean to him. Now you leave him alone, or I'll
+tell Mr. Tetlow on you."
+
+"Pooh! Think I care? I say no dog can come to our picnic. Go on
+home!" and with raised hand Danny approached Snap. Again   the dog
+growled angrily. He was not used to being treated in this way.
+
+"Look our, Danny Rugg," said Nan, severely, "or he may jump on you,
+and knock you down. He wouldn't bite you, though, mean as you are,
+unless I told him to do so."
+
+"I'm not afraid of you!" cried Danny, more angry than before. "I'll
+get a stick and then we'll see what will happen," and he looked
+about for one.
+
+"Don't let Danny beat Snap!" pleaded Flossie, tears coming into
+her eyes.
+
+"I won't," said Nan, looking about anxiously  for Bert. She saw
+him coming back, and felt better. By this time Danny had found a
+club, and was coming back to where Flossie, Freddie and Nan, with
+some of their friends, were walking along, Snap in their midst.
+
+"I'll make that dog go home now!" cried Danny. "I'm not going to
+get bitten, and have hyperfobia, or whatever you call it. I'll tell
+Mr. Tetlow if you don't make him go home."
+
+"Oh, don't be so smart!" exclaimed Bert, stepping out from behind
+a group of girls.  "I've told Mr. Tetlow myself that Snap is
+following us, and he said to let him come along. So you needn't
+take the trouble, Danny Rugg. And if you try to hit our dog I'll
+have something more to say," and Bert stepped boldly forth.
+
+"Huh! I'm not afraid of you," sneered Danny, but he let the club
+drop, and walked off with his own particular chums.
+
+"Did Mr. Tetlow say Snap could come?" asked Freddie, anxiously.
+
+"Yes. He said he'd be good to drive away  the cows if they bothered
+us," answered Bert, with a smile.
+
+After this little trouble, the Bobbseys and their friends went
+on toward the grove in the woods where the picnic was to be held.
+There was laughing and shouting, and much fun on the way, in which
+Snap shared.
+
+Boys and girls would run to one side or the other of the path to
+gather late flowers. Some  would pick up odd stones, or pine cones,
+and others would find curious little creeping or   crawling things
+which they called their friends to see.
+
+Each teacher had charge of her special class, but she did not look
+too closely after them, for it was a day to be happy and free from
+care, with no thought of school or lessons.
+
+"We'll make Snap do some tricks when we get to the grove," said
+Flossie.
+
+"Yes, we'll have a little circus," added her brother.
+
+"Can he stand on his head?" one girl wanted to know.
+
+"Well, he can turn a somersault, and he's on his head for a second
+while he's doing that," explained Freddie, proudly.
+
+"Can he roll over and over?" a boy wanted to know. "We had a dog,
+once, that could."
+
+"Snap can, too," said Flossie. "Roll over, Snap!" she ordered, and
+the dog, with a bark, did so. The children laughed and some clapped
+their hands. They thought Snap was about the best dog they had ever
+seen.
+
+No accidents happened on the way to the grove, except that one
+little boy tried to cross a brook on some stones, instead of the
+plank   which the others used. He slipped in and got his feet wet,
+but as the day was warm no one worried much.
+
+Finally the grove was reached. It was in a wooded valley, with
+hills on either side, and a cold, clear spring of water at one end,
+where everyone could get a drink. And that always seems to be what
+is most wanted at a picnic--a drink of water.
+
+Mr. Tetlow called all the children together, before letting them go
+off to play, and told them at what time the start for home would be
+made, so that they would not be late in coming back to the meeting
+place.
+
+"And now," he said, "have the best fun you can. Play anything you
+wish--school games if you like--but don't get too warm or excited.
+And don't go too far away. You may eat your luncheon when you like."
+
+"Then let's eat ours now," suggested Flossie.  "I'm awful hungry."
+
+"So am I," said Freddie. So Nan and Bert decided that the little
+ones might at least have a sandwich and a piece of cake. Nor did
+they forget the two little Jones children, who had no lunch. The
+Bobbseys were well provided   and soon Sammie and Julia were smiling
+and  happy as they sat beneath a tree, eating.
+
+Then came all sorts of games, from tag and  jumping rope, to
+blind-man's bluff and  hide-and-seek. Snap was made to do a number
+of tricks, much to the amusement of the teachers  and children.
+Danny Rugg, and some of the older boys, got up a small baseball
+game, and then Danny, with one or two chums, went off in a deeper
+part of the woods. Bert heard one of the boys ask another if he
+had any matches.
+
+"I know what they're going to do," whispered  Bert to Nan.
+
+"What?" she asked.
+
+"Smoke cigarettes. I saw Danny have a  pack."
+
+Nan was much shocked, but she did not say anything. She was glad
+Bert did not smoke.
+
+Bert went off with some boys to see if they could catch any fish
+in the deeper part of the brook, about half a mile from the picnic
+grove, and Nan, with one or two girls about  her own age, took
+a little walk with Flossie and Freddie to gather some late wild
+flowers  that grew on the side of one of the hills.
+
+They found a number of the blossoms, and were making pretty bouquets
+of them, when Freddie, who had gone on a little ahead of the rest,
+came running back so fast that he nearly rolled to the bottom of
+the hill, so fat and chubby was he.
+
+"What's the matter? What is it?" asked Nan, catching her brother
+just in time.
+
+"Up there!" he gasped. "It's up there!  A great big black one!"
+
+"A big black what--bug?" asked Nan, ready to laugh.
+
+"No, a big black snake! I almost stepped on it."
+
+"A snake! Oh, dear!" screamed the girls.
+
+"Call Mr. Tetlow!" said Flossie. "He's got a book about snakes,
+and he'll know what to do."
+
+"Come on!" cried Nellie Parks. "I'm going to run!"
+
+"So am I!" added Grace Lavine. "Oh, it may chase us!"
+
+In fright the children turned, Freddie looking back at the spot
+where he thought he had seen the snake.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+DANNY'S TRICK
+
+
+
+
+Nan Bobbsey stood for a moment, she hardly knew why. Perhaps she
+wanted to see the big snake of which Freddie spoke. It certainly
+was not because she liked reptiles.
+
+Then she thought she saw something long and black wiggling toward
+her, and, with a little exclamation of fright, she, too, turned
+to follow the others. But, as she did so, she saw their dog Snap
+come running up the hill, barking and wagging his tail. He seemed
+to have lost the children for a moment and to be telling them how
+glad he was that he had found them again.
+
+Straight up the hill, toward where Freddie had said the snake was,
+rushed Snap.
+
+"Here! Come back! Don't go there!" cried Nan.
+
+"No, don't let him--he may be bitten!" added Flossie. "Come here,
+Snap!"
+
+But Snap evidently did not want to mind.  On up the hill he rushed,
+pausing now and then to dig in the earth. Nearer and nearer he came
+to where the little Bobbsey boy had said the snake was hiding in
+the grass and bushes.
+
+"Oh, Snap! Snap!" cried Freddie. "Don't go there!" But Snap kept on,
+and Freddie, afraid lest his pet dog be bitten, caught up a stone
+and threw it at the place. His aim was pretty good, but instead
+of scaring away the snake, or driving back Snap, the fall of the
+stone only made Snap more eager to see what was there that his
+friends did not want him to get.
+
+With a loud bark he rushed on, and the children, turning to look,
+saw something long and black, and seemingly wiggling, come toward
+them.
+
+"Oh, the snake! The snake!" cried Nan.
+
+"Run! Run!" shouted Grace.
+
+"Come on!" exclaimed Nellie Parks, in loud tones.
+
+"Freddie! Freddie!" called Flossie, afraid lest her little brother
+be bitten.
+
+Snap rushed at the black thing so fiercely that he turned a somersault
+down the hill, and rolled over and over. But he did not mind this,
+and in an instant was up again. Once more he rushed at the black
+object, but the children did not watch to see what happened, for
+they were running away as fast as they could.
+
+Then Freddie, anxious as to what would become of Snap if he fought
+a snake, looked back. He saw a strange sight. The dog had in his
+mouth the long, black thing, and was running with it toward the
+Bobbseys and their friends.
+
+"Oh, Nan! Nan! Look! Look!" cried Freddie. "Snap has the snake!
+He's bringing it to us!"
+
+"Oh, he mustn't do that!" shouted Nan.  "It may bite him or us."
+
+"Run! Run faster!" shrieked Grace.
+
+But even though it was down hill the children could not run as fast
+as Snap, and he soon caught up to them. Running on a little   way
+ahead he dropped the black thing. But instead of wiggling or trying
+to bite, if was very still.
+
+"It--it's dead," said Nan. "Snap has killed it."
+
+Freddie was braver now. He went closer.
+
+"Why--why!" he exclaimed. "It isn't a snake at all! It's only an old
+black root of a tree, all twisted up like a snake! Look, Nan--Flossie!"
+
+Taking courage, the girls went up to look.  Snap stood over it,
+wagging his tail as proudly as though he had captured a real snake.
+As Freddie had said, it was only a tree root.
+
+"But it did look a lot like a snake in the grass," said the little
+fellow.
+
+"It must have," agreed Nan. "It looked like one even when Snap had
+it. But I'm glad it wasn't."
+
+"So am I," spoke Grace, and Nellie made a like remark.
+
+Snap frisked about, barking as though to ask praise for what he
+had done.
+
+"He is a good dog," observed Freddie, hearing which the animal almost
+wagged his   tail off. "And if it had been a real snake he'd have
+gotten it; wouldn't you?" went on the little boy.
+
+If barks meant anything, Snap said, with all his heart, that he
+certainly would--that not even a dozen snakes could frighten a big
+dog like him.
+
+The children soon got over the little scare, and went back up the
+hill again to gather more flowers. Snap went with them this time,
+running about here and there.
+
+"If there are any real snakes," said Freddie, "he'll scare them
+away. But I guess there aren't any."
+
+"I hope not," said Nan, but she and the others kept a sharp lookout.
+However, there was no further fright for them, and soon, with their
+hands filled with blossoms the Bobbseys and the others went back
+to the main party.
+
+Some of the teachers were arranging games with their pupils, and
+Nan, Flossie and Freddie joined in, having a good time. Then, when
+it was almost time to start for home, Mr. Tetlow blew loudly on a
+whistle he carried to call in the stragglers.
+
+"Where's Bert?" asked Flossie, looking about for her older brother.
+
+"I guess he hasn't come back from fishing yet," said Nan. "Come,
+Flossie and Freddie, I have a little bit of lunch left, and you
+might as well eat it, so you won't be hungry on the way home."
+
+The littler Bobbsey twins were glad enough to do this. Then they
+had to have a drink, and Nan went with them to the spring, carrying
+a glass tumbler she had brought.
+
+"This isn't like our nice silver cup that the fat lady took in the
+train," said Freddie, as he passed the glass of water very carefully
+to Flossie.
+
+"No," she said, after she had taken het drink. "I wonder if papa
+will ever get that back?"
+
+"He said, the other day," remarked Nan, as she got some water for
+Freddie, "that he hadn't heard from the circus yet. But I think
+he will. It isn't like Snoop, our cat. We don't know where he is,
+but we're pretty sure the fat lady has the cup."
+
+"Poor Snoop!" cried Freddie, as he   thought of the fine black cat.
+"Maybe some of the railroad men have him."
+
+"Maybe," agreed Flossie.
+
+When they got back to where the teachers and principal were, Bert
+and the boys who had gone fishing had returned. They had one or
+two small fish.
+
+"I'm going to have mamma cook them for my supper," said Bert,
+proudly holding up those he had caught.
+
+"They're too small--there won't be anything  left of them after
+they're cleaned," said Nan, who was quite a little housekeeper.
+
+"Oh, yes, there will," declared her brother "I'm going fishing
+again to-morrow, and  catch more."
+
+Mr. Tetlow was going about among the teachers, asking if all their
+pupils were on hand, ready for the march back. Danny Rugg and some
+of his close friends were missing.
+
+"They ought not to have gone off so far." said Mr. Tetlow, as he
+blew several times on the whistle. Soon Danny and the other boys
+were seen coming from a distant part of the   grove. One of the
+boys, Harry White, looked very pale, and not at all well.
+
+"What is the matter?" asked Mr. Tetlow.  and he looked curiously
+at Danny and the others, and sniffed the air as though he smelled
+something.
+
+"I--I guess I ate too many--apples," said Harry, in a faint voice.
+"We found an orchard, and---"
+
+"I told you not to go into orchards, and take fruit," said Mr.
+Tetlow, severely.
+
+"The man said we could," remarked Danny.  "We asked him."
+
+"Then you should not have eaten so many," said Mr. Tetlow. "I can't
+see how ripe apples which are the only kind there are this time of
+year--could make you ill unless you ate too many," and he looked
+at Danny and Harry sharply. But they did not answer.
+
+The march home was not as joyful as the one to the grove had been,
+for most of the children were tired. But they all had had a fine
+time, and there were many requests of the teachers to have another
+picnic the next week.
+
+"Oh, we can't have them every week, my dears," said Miss Franklin,
+who had charge of Flossie, Freddie and some others in the  kindergarten
+class. "Besides, it will soon be too cool to go out in the woods.
+In a little while we will have ice and snow, and Thanksgiving and
+Christmas."
+
+"That will be better than picnics," said Freddie. "I'm going to
+have a new sled."
+
+"I'm going to get a new doll, that can walk," declared Flossie,
+and then she and the others talked about the coming holidays.
+
+At school several days in the following week little was talked
+of except the picnic, the snake scare from the old tree root, the
+catching of the fish, and the illness of Harry White, for that boy
+was quite sick by the time town was reached, and Mr. Tetlow called
+a carriage to send him home.
+
+"And I can guess what made him sick too," said Bert to Nan, privately.
+
+"What?" she asked.
+
+"Smoking cigarettes."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Because when I and some of the other   fellows were fishing we
+saw Danny and his crowd smoking in the woods. They offered us some,
+but we wouldn't take any. Harry said he was sick then, but Danny
+only laughed at him."
+
+"That Danny Rugg is a bad boy," said Nan, severely. But she was
+soon to see how much meaner Danny could be.
+
+Workmen had recently finished putting some new water pipes, and
+a place for the children to drink, in the school yard, and one
+morning, speaking to the whole school, Mr.  Tetlow made a little
+speech, warning the children not to play with the faucets, and
+spray the water about, as some had done, in fun.
+
+"Whoever is caught playing with the faucets in the yard after this
+will be severely punished," he said.
+
+As it happened, Flossie and Freddie were not at school that day,
+Freddie having a slight sore throat. His mother kept him home, and
+Flossie would not go without him. So they did not hear the warning,
+and Bert and Nan did not think to tell the smaller children of it.
+
+Two days later Freddie was well enough to   go back to class, and
+Flossie accompanied him.  It was at the morning recess when, as
+Freddie went to get a drink at one of the new faucets, Danny saw
+him. A gleam of mischief came into the eyes of the school bully.
+
+"Want to see the water squirt, Freddie?" asked Danny. "That's a
+new kind of faucet.  It squirts awful far."
+
+"Does it?" asked Freddie, innocently.  "How do you make it?" He
+had no idea it was forbidden fun.
+
+"Just put your thumb over the hole, and turn the water on," directed
+Danny. "You, too, Flossie. It won't hurt you."
+
+Danny looked all around, thinking he was unobserved as he gave
+this bad advice. Naturally, Freddie and Flossie, being so young,
+suspected nothing. They covered the opening of the faucet with
+their thumbs, and turned on the water. It spurted in a fine spray,
+and they laughed in glee. That they wet each other did not matter.
+
+Danny, seeing the success of his trick, walked off as he saw Mr.
+Tetlow coming.  The Bobbsey twins were so intent on spurting   the
+water that they did not observe the principal until he was close
+to them. Then they started as he called out sharply:
+
+"Freddie! Flossie! Stop that! You know that it is forbidden! Go to
+my office at once and I will come and see you later, You will be
+punished for this!"
+
+With tears in their eyes the little twins obeyed. They could not
+understand it.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE CHILDREN'S PARTY
+
+
+
+
+When Mr. Tetlow, a little later, entered his office he found
+Flossie and Freddie standing by one of the windows, looking out on
+the other children marching to their classrooms.  They had cried
+a little, but had  stopped now.
+
+"I am very sorry to have to punish you two twins," said the
+principal, "but I had given strict orders that no one was to play
+with that water. Why did you do it?"
+
+"Because," answered Flossie.
+
+"Danny Rugg told us to," added Freddle.  "He said it was a new kind
+of faucet."
+
+"Now be careful," warned Mr. Tetlow.  Often before he had heard
+pupils say that someone else told them to break certain rules.
+"Are you sure about this?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, sir," said Freddie, eagerly, "Danny told us to do it."
+
+"But didn't you know it was forbidden?"
+
+"No, sir," answered Flossie.
+
+"Why, I spoke of it in all the rooms."
+
+"We wasn't here yesterday or the day before," said Flossie. "Freddie
+was sick."
+
+Mr. Tetlow began to understand.
+
+"I will look this up," he said, "and if I find---"
+
+He was interrupted by a boy from one of the higher classes coming
+in with a note from his teacher. She wanted a new box of chalk.
+
+"When you go back, George," said the principal to the boy, as he
+gave him what the teacher had sent for, "go to Miss Hegan's class,
+and have her send Danny Rugg to me.  Flossie and Freddie say he
+told them to spray water with one of the new faucets."
+
+"Yes, sir, he did!" exclaimed George. "I heard him, but I didn't
+think they would do it. He did tell them."
+
+At this unexpected information Mr. Tetlow was much surprised.
+
+"If that is the case, Danny is the one to be punished," he said.
+"I am sorry, Flossie and Freddie, that I suspected you. You may go
+back to your class, and I will write your teacher a note, saying you
+may go out half an hour ahead of the others to make up for coming
+to my office. But, after this, no matter whether anyone tells you
+or not, don't spray the water."
+
+"No, sir, we won't!" exclaimed the Bobbsey twins,  now happy again.
+
+Danny Rugg was punished by being kept in after school for several
+days, and Mr. Tetlow sent home a note to his father, explaining
+what a mean trick the bully had played.
+
+"I wish I had heard Danny telling you that--just to get you in
+trouble," said Bert, when he was told of what had happened. "I'd
+have fixed him."
+
+"Oh, don't get into any more fights," begged Nan.
+
+Bert did not come to blows with Danny over this latest trouble,
+but he did tell the bully, very plainly, what he thought of him,
+and said if Danny ever did a thing like that again that he would
+not get off so easily.
+
+"Oh. I'm not afraid of you," sneered Danny.
+
+Lessons and fun made up many school days   for the Bobbsey twins.
+And, as the Fall went on, lessons grew a little harder. Even Freddie
+and Flossie, young as they were, had little tasks to do that kept
+them busy. But they liked their school and the teacher, and many
+were the queer stories they brought home of the happenings in the
+classroom.
+
+It was now toward the end of October, and the weather was getting
+cooler, though during the day it was still very warm at times. The
+twins, as did their friends, looked forward to the coming of Winter
+and the Christmas holidays.
+
+Thanksgiving, too, would be a time of rejoicing and of good things
+to eat, and this occasion was to be made more of than usual this
+time, for some boys and girls the Bobbseys  had met in the country
+and at the seashore  were to be invited to spend a few days in
+Lakeport.
+
+But before this there was another event down on the program. This
+was to be a party for Flossie and Freddie, the occasion being their
+joint birthdays.
+
+"And we're going to have candy!" cried   Freddie, when the arrangements
+were talked over.
+
+"And ice cream"--added Flossie--"a whole freezer full; aren't we,
+mamma?"
+
+"Well, I guess a small freezer full won't be any too much," said
+Mrs. Bbbbsey, smiling.  "But I hope none of you eat enough to make
+yourselves ill."
+
+"We won't," promised Freddie and Flossie.
+
+There were busy times in the home of the twins the next few days,
+for though Nan and Bert's birthdays were not to be observed, still
+they were to have their part in the jolly  celebration.
+
+Invitations were sent out, on little sheets of note paper, adorned
+with flowers, and in cute little envelopes. Flossie and Freddie
+took them to the post-office themselves.
+
+"My! what a lot of mail!" exclaimed the clerk at the stamp window,
+as he saw the children dropping the invitations into the slot.
+"Uncle Sam will have to get some extra men to carry that around,
+I guess. What's it all about?"
+
+"We're going to have a party," said Flossie, proudly.
+
+Just then Danny Rugg came into the post office.
+
+"A party; eh?" he sneered. "I'm coming to it, I am; and I'm going
+to have two plates of ice cream."
+
+"You are not!" cried Freddie. "Our mamma wouldn't let a boy like
+you come to our party."
+
+"'Specially not after what you did--telling us to play in the
+water," added Freddie. "You can't come!"
+
+"Yes, I can," insisted Danny, just to tease the children.
+
+For a moment Flossie and Freddie almost believed him, he seemed so
+much in earnest about it.
+
+"You can't come--you haven't any invitation," said Flossie, suddenly.
+
+"I'll take one of those you put in the box," went on the mean boy.
+
+"He won't dare--will he?" and Freddie appealed to the mail clerk.
+
+"I should say not!" said the man at the   stamp window. "If he does
+Uncle Sam will be after him."
+
+"Well, I'm coming to that party all the same!" insisted Danny, with
+a grin on his freckled face.
+
+Flossie and Freddie were so worried about him that they told their
+mother, but she assured them that Danny would not come to spoil
+their fun.
+
+Finally the afternoon and evening of the party arrived, for the
+little folks were to come just before supper, play some games, eat,
+and then stay until about nine o'clock.
+
+Flossie and Freddie had been dressed in their prettiest clothes,
+and Nan and Bert also attired for the affair. The ice cream had
+come from the store, all packed in ice and salt, and Dinah had set
+it out on the back stoop, where it would be cooler.
+
+Dinah was very busy that day. She hurried about here and there,
+helping Mrs. Bobbsey.  Sam, her husband, also had plenty to do.
+
+"I 'clar t' gracious goodness!" Dinah exclaimed, "I suah will get
+thin ef dish yeah keeps up! I ain't set down a minute dis' blessed
+day. My feet'll drop off soon I 'spect."
+
+"Will they, really, Dinah?" asked Freddie.  "And can we watch 'em
+fall?"
+
+"Bress yo' hearts, honeys!" exclaimed the colored cook, "I didn't
+mean it jest dat way.  But suffin's suah gwine t' happen--I feels
+it in mah bones!"
+
+And something was to happen, though not exactly what Dinah expected.
+
+Finally all was in readiness for the guests.  The good things to
+eat were in the kitchen, all but the ice cream, which, as I have
+said, was out on the back porch. Flossie and Freddie had gone to
+the front door nearly a dozen times to see if any of the guests
+were in sight.  Snap, as a special favor, had been allowed to stay
+in the house that afternoon, for the twins were going to make him
+do tricks for their friends.
+
+There came a ring at the door bell.
+
+"Here they come! Here they come!" cried Flossie.
+
+"Let me answer, too," cried Freddie, and they both hurried through
+the front hall to greet the first guest at their party.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+AN UNPLEASANT SURPRISE
+
+
+
+
+Quickly, after the first guests had arrived came the others. Nellie
+Parks, Grace Lavine friends of Nan, and Willie Porter and his sister
+Sadie, came first, and Freddie and Flossie let them in, the Porter
+children being some of their best-liked playmates.
+
+All the children wore their best clothes, and for a time they were
+a bit stiff and unnatural, standing shyly about in corners, against
+the walls, or sitting on chairs.
+
+The boys seemed to all crowd together in one part of the room, and
+the girls in another.  Flossie and Freddie, Nan and Bert, were so
+busy answering the door that they did not notice this at first.
+
+But Aunt Sarah, their mother's sister, who had come over to help
+Mrs. Bobbsey, looking   in the parlor and library, saw what the
+trouble was.
+
+"My!" she cried, with a good-natured laugh, as she noticed how
+"stiff" the children were. "This will never do. You're not that way
+at school, I don't believe. Come, be lively. Mix up--play games.
+Pretend this is recess at school, and make as much noise as you
+like."
+
+For a moment the boys and girls did not know what to think of this
+invitation. But just then Snap, the circus dog, came in the room,
+and, with a bark of welcome, he turned a somersault, and then
+marched around on his hind legs, carrying a broomstick like a
+gun--pretending he was a soldier. Bert had given it to him.
+
+Then how the children laughed and clapped their hands! And Snap barked
+so loudly--for he liked applause--that there was noise enough for
+even jolly Aunt Sarah. After that there was no trouble. The boys
+and girls talked together and soon they were playing games, and
+having the best kind of fun.
+
+For some of the games simple prizes had   been offered and it was
+quite exciting toward the end to see who would win. Flossie and
+Freddie thought they had never had such a good time in all their
+lives. Nan and Bert were enjoying themselves, too, with their
+friends, who were slightly older than those who had been asked for
+the younger Bobbsey twins.
+
+"Going to Jerusalem," was one game that created lots of enjoyment.
+A number of chairs were placed in the centre of the room,  and the
+boys and girls marched around them while Mrs. Bobbsey played the
+piano. But there was one less chair than there were players,  so
+that when the music would suddenly stop, which was a signal for
+each one who could, to sit down, someone was sure to be left. Then
+this one had to stay out of the game.
+
+Then a chair would be taken away, so as always to have one less
+than the number of players, and the game went on. It was great fun,
+scrambling to see who would get a seat, and not be left without
+one, and finally there but one chair left, while Grace Lavine and
+John Blake marched about. Mrs. Bobbsey kept playing quite some
+time, as the two went around and around that one chair. Everyone
+was laughing, wondering who would get a seat and so win the game,
+when, all at once, Mrs. Bobbsey stopped the music. She had her back
+turned so it would be perfectly fair.
+
+Grace and John made a rush for the one chair, but Grace got to it
+first, and so she won.
+
+"Well, I'm glad you did, anyhow," said John, politely.
+
+Other games were "peanut races" and "potato scrambles." In the
+first each player had a certain number of peanuts and they had to
+start at one end of the room, and lay the nuts at equal distances
+apart across to the other side, coming back each time to their pile
+of peanuts to get one.
+
+Sometimes a boy would slip, he was in such a hurry, or a girl would
+drop her peanuts, and this made fun and confusion.
+
+Nan won this race easily.
+
+In the potato scramble several rows of potatoes were made across
+the room. Each player was given a large spoon, and whoever first
+took up all his or her potatoes in the spoon, one at a time, and
+piled them up at the far end of the room, won the game. In this
+Charley Mason was successful, and won the prize--a pretty little
+pin for his tie.
+
+The afternoon wore on, and, almost before the children realized it
+the hour for supper had arrived. They were not sorry, either, for
+they all had good appetites.
+
+"Come into the dining room, children," invited Mrs. Bobbsey.
+
+And Oh! such gasps of pleased surprise as were heard when the children
+saw what had been prepared for them! For Mr. and Mrs Bobbsey, while
+not going to any great expense, and not making the children's party
+too fanciful, had made it beautiful and simple.
+
+The long table was set with dishes and pretty glasses. There were
+flowers in the centre, and at each end, and also blooms in vases about
+the room. Then, from the centre chandelier to the four corners of
+the table, were strings of green smilax in which had been entwined
+carnations of various colors.
+
+The lights were softly glowing on the pretty   scene, and there
+were prettily shaded candles to add to the effect. But what caught
+the eyes of all the children more than anything else were two large
+cakes--one at either end of the table.
+
+On each cake burned five candles, and on one cake was the name
+"Flossie," while the other was marked "Freddie." The names were in
+pink icing on top of the white frosting that covered the birthday
+cakes.
+
+"Oh! Oh! Oh!" could be heard all about the room. "Isn't that too
+sweet for anything!"
+
+
+"I guess they are sweet!" piped up Freddie in his shrill little
+voice, "'cause Dinah put lots of sugar in 'em; didn't you, Dinah?"
+and he looked at Dinah, who had thrust her laughing, black,
+good-natured face into the dining room door.
+
+"Dat's what I did, honey! Dat's what I did!" she exclaimed. "If
+anybody's got a toofache he'd better not eat any ob dem cakes,
+'cause dey suah am sweet."
+
+How the children laughed at that!
+
+"All ready, now, children, sit down," said   Mrs. Bobbsey. "Your
+names are at your plates."
+
+There was a little confusion getting them all seated, as those on
+one side of the table found that their name cards were on the other
+side. But Flossie and Freddie, and Nan and Bert, helped the guests
+to find their proper places and soon everyone was in his or her
+chair.
+
+"Can't Snap sit with us, too?" asked Freddie, looking about for
+his pet, who had done all his tricks well that evening.
+
+"No, dear," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Snap is a good dog, but we don't
+want him in the dining room when we are eating. It gives him bad
+habits."
+
+"Then can't I send him out some cakes?" asked Flossie, for Snap
+had almost as large a "sweet tooth" as the children themselves.
+
+"Yes, as it is your birthday, I suppose you can give him some of
+your good things," said Mamma Bobbsey.
+
+"Here, Dinah!" called Freddie to the cook, as he piled a plate full
+of cakes. "Please give these to Snap."
+
+"Land sakes goodness me alive!" cried Dinah. "Dat suah am queer.
+Feedin' a dog jest laik a human at a party. I can't bring mahself
+to it, nohow."
+
+"I'll take 'em out to him," said her husband.
+
+Then the feast began, and such a feast at it was! Mrs. Bobbsey,
+knowing how easily the delicate stomachs of children can be upset,
+had wisely selected the food and sweets, and she saw to it that no
+one ate too much, though she was gently suggestive about it instead
+of ordering.
+
+"Don't eat too much," advised Freddie to some of the friends who
+sat near him.  "We've got a lot of ice cream coming. Save room for
+that."
+
+"That's so--I almost forgot," spoke Jimmie Black.
+
+A little later Mrs. Bobbsey said to Dinah:
+
+"I think you may bring in the cream now, and I will help you serve
+it."
+
+"Yes, ma'am."
+
+"Oh, goodie!" cried Freddie. "Ice cream's coming!" and he waved
+his spoon above his head.
+
+"Freddie--Freddie" said his mother, in gentle reproof.
+
+Dinah went out on the back stoop, looked around and came running
+back to the dining room, where Mrs. Bobbsey was. Dinah's eyes were
+big with wonder and surprise.
+
+"Mrs. Bobbsey! Mrs. Bobbsey!" she cried.  "Suffin's done gone an'
+happened!"
+
+"What is it?" asked Mamma Bobbsey, quickly. "Is anyone hurt?"
+
+"No'm, but dat ice cream freezer hab jest gone and walked right
+off de back stoop, an' it ain't dere at all, nohow! De ice cream
+is all gone!"
+
+The children looked at one another with pained surprise showing on
+their faces.
+
+The ice cream was gone!
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+A COAT BUTTON
+
+
+
+
+Astonishment, surprise and disappointment  were so great for a few
+seconds after  the discovery that the best part of the party--the
+ice cream--was gone, that no one knew  what to say. Then Flossie
+burst out with:
+
+"Are you sure, Dinah? Maybe it fell off the porch."
+
+"Deed an' it didn't, honey gal. I done looked eberywhar fo' dat
+freezer, an' it's jest gone complete."
+
+"Maybe Snap took it," suggested Freddie, as a last hope. "Once he
+took my book and hid it. Snap, did you take the ice cream?"
+
+Snap barked and wagged his tail, looking rather pained at being
+asked such a question.
+
+"No, indeedy, Snap couldn't take off a big freezer like dat,"
+declared Dinah. "It wasn't Snap."
+
+"Then who could it have been?" asked Nan. Everyone had stopped eating
+while this talk went on. "Who could have taken our ice cream?"
+
+"Dat's what I don't know, honey," answered the colored cook. "Dat's
+why I comed in heah to tell yo' mamma. I 'spects, Mrs, Bobbsey,
+dat we'd better phonograph fo' de police."
+
+"Phonograph--I guess you mean telephone;  don't you, Dinah?" asked
+Mrs. Bobbsey, with a smile.
+
+"Yes'm, dat's what I done mean. Or else maybe we kin send mah man
+Sam down to de Station house fo' 'em."
+
+"No, I had better telephone, in case it is necessary. But perhaps
+I had better take a look out there. Perhaps the man from the store
+may have set the cream off to one side."
+
+"No'm, he didn't do dat. I took p'ticlar notice where he set it.
+Dere's a wet ring-mark on de porch where de freezer was, 'count
+of de salty water leakin' out. An' dat wet ring-mark am all dat's
+left ob de cream, dar now!"  and Dinah, standing with her hands
+on her   hips, looked at the startled children, whose mouths were
+just ready for the ice cream.
+
+"Well, I'm going to have a look, anyhow," said Bert. "Come on,
+Charley. Maybe, after all, that Danny Rugg is up to some of his
+tricks."
+
+"I'm with you, Bert!" cried Charley.  "But we ought to have some
+sort of a light.  It's dark out."
+
+"I'll get my little pocket electric light," said Bert. He had one,
+and it gave a good light.  He went to his room for it.
+
+Flossie and Freddie did not know what to do. That their lovely
+party should be spoiled by the missing ice cream seemed too bad to
+be true.
+
+"Mamma, if we can't find this ice cream, can't we buy more?" Flossie
+wanted to know "The girls just want some--so bad!"
+
+"And the boys, too," added Freddie.
+
+"Oh, I guess we'll manage to get some for you, if we can't find
+this," answered Mrs.  Bobbsey. "We may have to wait a little while
+for it, though."
+
+"Well, we'll have a look," said Bert, as he   came down with his
+little electric lamp. Some of his own particular chums, including
+Charley Mason, followed him out to the back porch.  Dinah was in
+her kitchen, looking behind tables, under the sink, in the pantry
+and all about, hoping that, somehow or other, the freezer might
+have gotten in there. But it was not to be found.
+
+"Well, here's where it stood," said Bert, as he looked at the
+round, wet mark on the porch where the freezer had set. He flashed
+his torch on it, and then cried out:
+
+"And look, boys, here are some spots of water that must have leaked
+from the wooden tub that holds the tin freezer. See, the water has
+dripped down on each step! This is the way they carried off our
+ice cream."
+
+The others could see a trail of water drops leading from the stoop
+down the steps and along the stone walk at the side of the Bobbsey
+house.
+
+"Now we can follow and see just where they took our cream!" cried
+Bert. "This is the way Indians used to trail the white settlers."
+
+"Let me come!" cried Freddie, hearing this. "I want to help hunt
+whoever took our ice cream."
+
+"No, you'd better stay back there," said Bert.
+
+"Why?" his little brother wanted to know.
+
+"Because it might be--tramps--who have it, and there'd be trouble,"
+said Bert.
+
+"Wait until I get my cap pistol!" cried Freddie. "I can scare a
+tramp with that."
+
+"No, you go back there, and stay in the house," went on Bert. "If
+we find tramps have it, we'll get a policeman."
+
+"It might be that a tramp did steal up on the steps, and lift off
+the freezer," said Mrs.  Bobbsey. "Bert, be careful," she called
+to her son, who set off in the darkness with his chums, flashing
+his electric light from time to time.
+
+"I'll look out!" he called back.
+
+For some distance it was easy to see which way the ice cream freezer
+had been carried, for there were the marks of the dripping water.
+Then these stopped about the middle of the sidewalk, and seemed to
+go over in the grass.
+
+"We can't see 'em now," spoke Charley.  "That's too bad."
+
+"Well, we'll keep on this way in a straight line," suggested Bert.
+"Maybe they took the freezer down back of our berry bushes to eat
+the cream."
+
+"I hope they left some," said John Anderson, in a mournful sort of
+voice.
+
+Hurrying on after Bert, the boys looked eagerly about in the
+darkness for a sign of the missing ice cream. There were not many
+chances of them finding it, for though Bert's electric torch gave
+a brilliant light for a short distance, it was not very large.
+
+"What's over there?" asked Charley, pausing and pointing to a patch
+of blackness.
+
+"An old barn, that we used to use before we had our new one built,"
+answered Bert. "Why?"
+
+"Well, maybe they took the ice cream in there to eat it," went on
+Charley. "Is it open?"
+
+"Yes, it's never locked. Say, we'll take a look in there, anyhow!"
+exclaimed Bert "Come on, fellows!"
+
+He led the way, the others following. As they approached the big,
+deserted barn Frank Black exclaimed in a whisper:
+
+"I see a light!"
+
+"So do I!" added Will Evans.
+
+"And it's moving around," spoke Mason.
+
+"It's them, all right," decided Bert. "The tramps who took our ice
+cream are in there, all right!"
+
+"What makes you think they are tramps?" asked Will.
+
+"Well, I'm not sure, of course," admitted Bert. "But we can soon
+tell. Come on!"
+
+"Are you--are you going up there?" asked Charley.
+
+"Sure! Why not? I think we can scare 'em away."
+
+The other boys hesitated. Some of them were older than Bert, and
+when they saw that he was determined to go on, they made up their
+minds that they would not let him go alone.
+
+"All right--go ahead--we're with you," said Charley.
+
+Bert and the others advanced. As they walked on they could see the
+light in the barn more plainly. And, as they stopped for a moment
+they could hear voices talking in low tones.
+
+"More than one," whispered Charley.
+
+"Yes, three or four," said Bert.
+
+They walked ahead again, when suddenly Charley stepped on a stick
+that broke with a loud snap. In an instant the light in the barn
+went out, and then could be heard the footsteps of several persons
+running away.
+
+"There they are!" shouted Bert, dashing forward. "Come on, fellows!
+We'll get 'em now!"
+
+"That's right!" cried Charley. "Come on, surround 'em!"
+
+Of course this was all said for effect, as the boys had no idea
+of trying to capture the tramps, or whoever it was that had taken
+the ice cream. But Bert thought that they could scare the thieves
+away, for the latter could not tell, in the darkness, how many,
+nor who were after them.
+
+Flashing his light, Bert dashed ahead, followed by the others. Into
+the big barn they went, and, just as they entered the main part,
+they had a glimpse of someone running out of a side door.
+
+"There they go!" cried Charley. "We can catch 'em!"
+
+"No, let 'em go," advised Bert. "Here's our ice cream. Let's see
+if there's any left.  If there is we'll take it back to the party.
+We might get into trouble if we went after those fellows."
+
+By the gleam of the electric light they could all see the freezer
+of cream in the middle of the barn floor, near some upturned boxes.
+A hasty look showed that only a little had been taken out.
+
+"There's plenty left!" said Bert. "We surprised 'em just in time.
+Now let's get back to the house."
+
+It was rather a triumphant procession that went back to the home
+of the Bobbsey twins, carrying the recovered ice cream freezer.
+And such a shout of delight from Flossie, Freddie and the others
+as greeted the boys!
+
+"Is there any left?" asked Freddie.
+
+"Plenty," said Bert.
+
+"And did you catch the bad tramps?" Flossie wanted to know.
+
+"They got away," her brother said. "But never mind, we scared them
+before they had a chance to eat much."
+
+"I 'clar t' goodness sakes alive!" gasped Dinah, when she saw the
+ice cream freezer carried into her kitchen, "yo' am suttinly a
+smart boy, Massa Bert--dat's what yo' suah am!"
+
+"Oh, well, the others helped me find it," said Bert, modestly.
+
+As Dinah and Mrs. Bobbsey were dishing out the cream, the colored
+cook uttered a cry.
+
+"Look out!" she exclaimed. "Dere's suffin black in dere, Mrs.
+Bobbsey. Maybe it's a stone dem careless tramps put in. Wait 'till
+I gits it out."
+
+With a long-handled spoon. Dinah fished for the black thing, and got
+it. She put it in a dish, with a small portion of the ice cream,
+and when the latter had melted, Bert, who was inspecting the object,
+gave a cry of surprise.
+
+"Why, it's a button--a coat button!" he exclaimed.
+
+"A button? How in the world could that get in there?" asked his
+mother. "Unless you boys dropped it in when you were carrying the
+cream."
+
+Bert and the other boys quickly looked at their coats. There were
+no buttons missing.
+
+"An' it suah wasn't in when de cream come heah," said Dinah. "I
+knows, fo I took off de kiver an' looked in t' see how hard it were
+froze. Dat button got in since!"
+
+"Yes, and I think I know how, too!" exclaimed Bert.
+
+"How?" asked Freddie.
+
+"It was dropped in by whoever took the freezer. They must have been
+eating the cream right out of the can, and maybe they dropped the
+button in. I'll save it"
+
+"What for?" asked Nan, wonderingly.
+
+"I may be able to find out by it, who took the freezer," went on
+Bert. "I'm going to look at the coats of all the fellows in school
+next week, and if I find one with the button like this missing,
+I'll know what to think."
+
+"Be careful not to accuse anyone wrongly," cautioned his mother.
+
+Bert put the button carefully away, and the party guests were soon
+eating their ice cream, and discussing the disappearance of the
+freezer and the finding of it by the boys. Then with the playing of
+more games, and the singing of songs, the affair came to a close,
+and good-nights were said.
+
+"We've had a lovely time!" said the boys and girls to Flossie and
+Freddie, as they left.
+
+"Glad you did--come again," invited the small Bobbsey twins.
+
+Even Snap seemed to have enjoyed himself.  And when the house was
+settling down to quietness for the night, and when Dinah and Mrs.
+Bobbsey were picking up the dishes, the circus dog marched around
+like a soldier, with a stick for a gun, and one of the fancy caps,
+that came in the "surprise" packets, on his head.
+
+When Bert went to bed that night he laid the button found in the
+ice cream where he would be sure to see it in the morning.
+
+"I'm going to find out whose coat that came off of," he said to
+himself.
+
+The little Bobbsey twins slept late the next   morning, and so did
+Nan, but Bert was up early.
+
+"I'm going over to the barn, and see if I can tell by looking around
+it, how many were at our freezer," he said.
+
+But there was nothing there to help him in his search. Some old
+boxes, placed in a sort of circle, showed where the ones who had
+taken the ice cream, had rested to eat it.
+
+"They must have had spoons with them," said Bert to himself, as he
+looked about.  "That shows they came all prepared to take our ice
+cream. So they must have known it was going to be here. Well, I'll
+see whose coat has a button missing."
+
+It took Bert some days to look carefully at the coats of the various
+boys in school, who might have been guilty of taking the cream.
+For a time he had no luck, and then, one afternoon, as he noticed
+Danny Rugg wearing a coat he seldom had on, Bert walked slowly up
+to him, clasping the button, with his hand, in  his pocket.
+
+His heart beast fast as he noticed that from the middle of Danny's
+coat a button was gone.  And a glance at the others showed Bert
+that they were just like the one found in the ice cream freezer.
+
+"I see you've lost a button, Danny," said Bert, slowly.
+
+"Hey?" exclaimed the bully, with a start.
+
+"I see you've lost a button," repeated Bert.
+
+"Yes, I guess it dropped off. Maybe it's home somewhere," said
+Danny.
+
+"No, it isn't--it's here!" exclaimed Bert, suddenly holding the
+button out to him.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THANKSGIVING
+
+
+
+
+For a moment Danny Rugg just stared at Bert. Then the bully swallowed
+a sort of lump that came in his throat, and said:
+
+"That isn't my button."
+
+"Isn't it?" asked Bert, politely. "Why, it just matches the others
+on your coat, and it's got a few threads in the holes, and there
+are some threads in your coat, just where the button was pulled
+off. I guess it's your button, all right, Danny."
+
+Danny did not say anything. He looked from the button to Bert, and
+then at the space on his coat where a button should have been, but
+where one was missing.
+
+"Well--well," he stammered. "Maybe it is off my coat, but--but how
+did you get it, Bert Bobbsey?"
+
+"I found it," was the answer. "Don't you want it back?"
+
+He held it out to Danny, who took it slowly.
+
+"Well," went on Bert, with a queer little smile at his enemy, "why
+don't you ask me _where_ I found it, Danny?"
+
+"Huh! I don't care where you found it.  I s'pose you picked it
+up around the school yard, where I lost it, playing tag with the
+fellows."
+
+"No, you didn't lose it there," went on Bert, still smiling. "You
+have another guess coming, Danny."
+
+"Pooh! I don't care where you found it," and Danny was about to
+turn away.
+
+"Wait a minute," said Bert. "Suppose I say that this button was
+found in our freezer of ice cream, that you and some other boys took
+off our stoop the night of Flossie's and Freddie's party, Danny?
+What about that?"
+
+"It isn't--I didn't--you can't prove anything about me, Bert Bobbsey,
+and if you go  around telling that I took your ice cream, I--I---"
+
+But Danny did not know what else to say.  He was confused and his
+face was white and red by turns, for he realized that Bert had good
+proof of what he said.
+
+"Better go slow," advised Bert, calmly. "I don't intend to go around
+telling what you did.  I just want to let you know that I am sure
+you took our ice cream."
+
+"I--I---" began Danny. "You're only trying to fool me!" he exclaimed.
+"That button wasn't in it at all!"
+
+"Wasn't it?" asked Bert, quietly. "Well, you just ask Charley Mason,
+or any of the fellows who were at the party, what we found in the
+freezer, and see what they say."
+
+Danny had nothing to reply to this. Thrusting the button in his
+pocket he walked off.  Bert was sure he had found the boy who had
+taken the ice cream.
+
+Later, from a boy who had been friends with Danny for some time,
+but whose father, afterward, decided that his son was getting into
+bad company, and made him cease playing with the school bully,
+Bert learned that Danny had planned to take the ice cream freezer
+off the porch.
+
+He and several boys did this, carrying it to the old barn. They
+had provided themselves with large spoons, and were having a good
+time, eating the cream, when they heard the approach of Bert and
+his friends, and fled, leaving the cream behind.
+
+It was during a dispute as to who should have the right to first
+dip into the freezer that Danny and a boy named Jake Harkness had
+a struggle, and in this Danny lost a button which fell into the ice
+cream without anyone knowing it. The coat Danny wore that night he
+did not put on again for some time, but when he did Bert saw the
+missing button.
+
+Danny knew that he had been found out, and for a time he had little
+to say. But Bert was boy enough not to be able to keep altogether
+quiet over his discovery. From time to time he would ask Danny:
+
+"Lost any more buttons, lately?"
+
+"You let me alone!" Danny would reply,  surlily.
+
+Of course this made talk, the boys wanting to know what it meant,
+and at last the story came out. This made Danny so angry that he
+picked several quarrels with Bert. On his part Bert tried to avoid
+them, but at last he could stand it no longer, and he and Danny
+came to blows again, Danny striking first.
+
+Bert had been brought up with the idea that fighting, unless it
+could absolutely be avoided, was not gentlemanly, but in this case
+he could not get out of it.
+
+He and Danny went at each other with their fists clenched, a crowd
+of other boys looking on, and urging one or the other to do their
+best, for both Danny and Bert had friends, though Bert was the best
+liked.
+
+Danny struck Bert several times, and Bert hit back, once hitting
+Danny in the eye. Bert's lip was cut, and when the fight was over
+both  boys did not look very nice. But everyone said Bert had the
+best of it.
+
+"Oh, Bert!" exclaimed his mother, when he came home after the
+trouble with Danny.  "You've been fighting!"
+
+"Yes, mother, I have," he admitted. "I'm sorry, but I couldn't help
+it. Danny Rugg hit me first. I couldn't run away, could I?"
+
+It was a hard question for a mother to answer. No mother likes to
+think her son a coward, and that was what the boys would have called
+Bert had he not stood up to Danny.
+
+"I--I just had to!" continued Bert. "And  I beat him, anyhow,
+mother."
+
+Mrs. Bobbsey cried a little, and then she  made the best of it, and
+bathed Bert's cut lip  and bruised forehead. She told his father
+about it, too, and Mr. Bobbsey, after hearing  the account, asked:
+
+"Who won?"
+
+"Well, Bert says he did?"
+
+"Um. Well, I've no doubt but what he did.  He's getting quite
+strong."
+
+"Oh, Richard!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey,  in dismay.
+
+"Well, boys will--er--have their little  troubles" said her husband.
+"I'm sorry Bert  had to fight, but I'm glad he wasn't a coward.
+But he mustn't fight any more."
+
+Then Mr. Bobbsey sat down to read the evening paper.
+
+The weather was getting cooler. Several nights there had been heavy
+frosts, and for some time the papers had been saying that it   was
+going to snow, but the white flakes did not sift down from the sky.
+
+Thanksgiving was approaching. It was the end of the Fall term of
+school, and there were to be examinations to see who would pass
+into the next higher classes for the Winter season.
+
+Of course in the case of Freddie and Flossie, who were still in the
+kindergarten, the examinations were not very hard, but they were
+soon to go into the regular primary class, where they would learn
+to read. And both the twins were very anxious for this. Bert and
+Nan had somewhat harder lessons to do, and they had to answer more
+difficult questions in the examinations.
+
+But I am glad to say that all of the Bobbsey twins were promoted,
+and Freddie and Flossie came home very proud to tell that when
+they went back again, after the Thanksgiving holidays, they would
+be in the primer reading book.
+
+And such preparations as went on for  Thanksgiving! Dinah was busy
+from morning  until night, and when the little twins made  inquiries
+about the turkey they were to have.  Mr. Bobbsey said it would be
+the biggest he could buy.
+
+"An' I'se gwine t' stuff him wif chestnuts an' oysters," said Dinah.
+"I tells you what, chilluns, yo' all am suttinly gwine to hab one
+grand feed."
+
+"I wish everybody was," said Flossie, a bit wistfully. "I hope our
+cat Snoop, wherever he is, has plenty of milk, and some nice turkey
+bones."
+
+"I guess he will have," said Mamma Bobbsey, gently.
+
+"I hope all the poor children in our school have enough to eat,"
+said Freddie. "Mr. Tetlow  said for us to bring what we could for
+them."
+
+"And you never told me!" exclaimed Mrs.  Bobbsey. "Why didn't you?
+I would have sent something."
+
+Neither Bert nor Nan had thought to mention at home that a collection
+would be taken it the school for the poor families in the town.
+But as soon as Mrs. Bobbsey heard what Freddie said she telephoned
+to her husband. Mr.  Bobbsey went to see Mr. Tetlow, and from   him
+learned that there were a number of families  who would not have
+a very happy Thanksgiving.
+
+Then the lumber merchant gave certain orders to his grocer and
+butcher, and if a number of poor people were not well supplied with
+food that gladsome season, it was not the fault of Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+But I am getting a little ahead of my story.  A few days before
+Thanksgiving Mrs. Bobbsey,  with a letter in her hand, came to
+where the four twins were in the sitting room, talking over what
+they wanted for Christmas.
+
+"Guess who are coming to spend Thanksgiving with us!" cried Mamma
+Bobbsey, as she waved the letter in the air.
+
+"Uncle Bobbsey!" guessed Nan.
+
+"Uncle Minturn," said Bert.
+
+The little twins guessed other friends and relatives, and finally
+Mrs. Bobbsey said:
+
+"Yes, your Uncle Bobbsey and Uncle Minturn are coming, and so are
+your aunts, and Cousin Harry, Cousin Dorothy and also Hal Bingham,
+whom you met at the seashore."
+
+"Oh, what a jolly Thanksgiving it will be!" cried the Bobbsey twins.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+MR. TETLOW ASKS QUESTIONS
+
+
+
+
+Thanksgiving was celebrated in the Bobbsey  home as it never had
+been before. I am afraid if I told you all that went on, of the
+big, brown-roasted turkey, of the piles of crisp celery, of the
+pumpkin and mince pies, of the nuts and candies, of the big dishes
+of cranberry  sauce, and the plum pudding that Dinah carried in
+high above her head--I am afraid if I told you of all these things
+there would be trouble.
+
+For I am sure you would all be writing to me to ask where the
+Bobbseys lived, so that you might go and see them, and perhaps spend
+Christmas with them. Not that they would not be glad to have you,
+but they have so many friends that their house is sure to be filled
+over the holidays.
+
+So I will simply say that there was the grandest time ever, and
+let it go at that.  Uncle and Aunt Bobbsey--Uncle and Aunt Minturn,
+from the country and seashore, came, with Cousin Dorothy and Cousin
+Harry.  Then, also, Hal Bingham arrived, and the Bobbsey twins took
+great delight in showing their former playmates about Lakeport.
+
+"Isn't it lonesome at the seashore now?" asked Nan of Dorothy, as
+she walked with her cousin about the busy streets of the town.
+
+"Not at all," answered Dorothy. "The sea is never lonesome for me.
+It always seems to be telling me something, Winter or Summer."
+
+
+"I love it in the Summer," said Nan, "but in the Winter it seems
+so cold and cruel."
+
+"That is because you do not know it as well as I do," said Dorothy.
+
+Hal, Harry, and Bert had fine times together.  There was no skating,
+and the little flurry of snow there had been was not enough for
+coasting, but they had other fun.
+
+"Do your ducks miss our duck Downy?" asked Freddie of his cousin
+Harry.
+
+"Well, I guess they do," was the laughing answer, for Freddie and
+Flossie had a pet duck   which they took about with them almost as
+faithfully as they did Snoop. "How is Downy, anyhow?" asked Harry.
+
+"He's fine," answered the little fellow.  "Want to see him?" and he
+took his cousin out to the barn where Downy had a pen all to himself.
+
+"Snoop's gone," said Freddie, "and so is our silver cup, but maybe
+we'll get that back.  It's in a circus."
+
+"In a circus!" cried Harry. "I should think your cat might be in
+a circus, but not a silver cup."
+
+"We don't know where Snoop is," went on Freddie, "'cause he got
+away at the time of the circus wreck," and he explained about it.
+"But we are almost sure the circus fat lady has our cup."
+
+The Thanksgiving holidays came to an end at last and, much to the
+regret of the Bobbseys, their visitors, old and young, had to go
+back to their homes.
+
+"But you'll come again at Christmas; won't you?" asked Flossie as
+she said good-bye.
+
+"We'll try," said her Uncle Bobbsey. "But   maybe there won't be
+room, with Santa Claus and all his reindeers."
+
+"Oh, we'll make room for you," spoke Freddie. "Santa Claus won't
+stay long."
+
+With a merry peal of laughter the visitors went off to the station,
+waving farewells.  Then came rather a quiet time at the Bobbsey
+house, as there always is when visitors go.  There seems to be a
+sort of loneliness, when company leaves, no matter how many there
+are in the family, nor what fun there is. But the feeling soon
+passes.
+
+"Well, we'll soon be at school again," said Bert, a day or so before
+the opening of the Winter term. "I wish we'd get some snow.  Then
+it would be more fun."
+
+"Yes," said Freddie. "We could build snow forts and have snowball
+fights. I wish it would snow hard."
+
+"So do I, so we could ride down hill," said Nan, "Is your big bob
+nearly done, Bert?"
+
+"No, Charley and I have quite a lot of things to do on it yet, but
+we're going to work every night after school now, and it will soon
+be finished."
+
+"I'm going to have skates for Christmas," announced Freddie. "I
+hope the lake will be frozen over by then."
+
+"I guess it will be," returned Bert. "It's getting colder every
+night."
+
+The Bobbseys were back at school. For a time Nan and Bert, who were
+in a higher grade, did not like it so well, as they had a strange
+teacher, and lessons, too, were more difficult. But they were not
+children who gave up easily, and soon they were at the head of
+their class as usual. Their teacher, too, was much nicer than they
+had thought at first.  They had considered her stern, but it was
+only her way, and soon wore off.
+
+As for Freddie and Flossie, they had advanced but little except in
+reading, and this opened a new world to them.
+
+"We'll soon be reading books," boasted Freddie, on his way home one
+day. "And I'm going to read all about firemen, soldiers and Indians."
+
+"Oh, I'm not," said Flossie. "I'm going to read how to be a nurse,
+so I can take care of you when you're hurt."
+
+"That will be nice," said Freddie.
+
+One day, at recess, Bert saw Jim Osborne motioning to him in a
+secret sort of fashion.
+
+"Come on with us," said Jim, who was a new boy in school. "Danny
+Rugg and some of the rest of us are going to have some sport."
+
+"What doing?" asked Bert.
+
+"Smoking cigarettes back of the coal house.  I've got a whole pack."
+
+"No; I don't smoke," said Bert quietly.
+
+"Bah! You're afraid!" sneered Jim.  "Cigarettes can't hurt you.
+It's only cigars and pipes that do."
+
+"Yes, I admit I am afraid," said Bert "I'm afraid of getting
+sick. Besides, I promised  my mother I wouldn't smoke until I was
+twenty-one, and I'm not going to tell a story.  Anyhow, I've got
+an uncle who smokes, and he says cigarettes are worse than a pipe
+or cigars, and he ought to know."
+
+"Aw, come on!" urged Jim.
+
+"No," said Bert firmly, and he would not go. Jim went off with
+Danny and some of the other boys, and they were laughing among
+themselves. Bert felt that they were laughing at him, but he did
+not mind.
+
+There was to be an examination of the school by some of the members
+of the Board of Education late that afternoon, and, directly after
+recess, Mr. Tetlow went to each room to tell the pupils and teachers
+to get ready for it, and to put certain work on the blackboards,
+so it could be seen.
+
+When the principal got to the room where Danny Rugg and his particular
+chums sat, Mr Tetlow, sniffing the air suspiciously, said:
+
+"I smell smoke!"
+
+"I have been noticing it, too," said the lady teacher. "Perhaps
+the furnace does not work properly."
+
+"It isn't that kind of smoke," went on Mr.  Tetlow. "It is tobacco
+smoke. Have any of you boys been smoking during recess?" he asked
+sternly, looking across the room.
+
+No one answered. Danny, Jim, and some of the others seemed to be
+studying their geography lessons very hard.
+
+"I just want to say a word about cigarette smoking," went on
+Mr. Tetlow, "for that is  usually how a boy begins. Of smoking in
+general, when a boy gets to be a man, I have nothing to say. Some
+say it is injurious, and others not, in moderation. But there can
+be no doubt that for a growing boy to smoke is very harmful. Again
+I ask if anyone here has been smoking?"
+
+No one replied. The guilty boys bent deep over their books and did
+not look up.
+
+"Well, I am sure someone here has," said Mr. Tetlow. "I can smell
+it plainly." He walked down the aisles, looking sharply from one
+boy to another. If he was sure who were the guilty ones he gave
+no sign. "And I want to add," said Mr. Tetlow, "that not only is
+cigarette smoking harmful to the smoker, but it is dangerous. Many
+fires have been caused in that way. If I find out who of my pupils
+have been smoking around the school they will be severely punished."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE FIRST SNOW
+
+
+
+
+There was considerable talk among the boys in Danny's room after
+Mr. Tetlow departed.  And it was noticed that Danny and some of
+his particular friends looked around with rather frightened faces,
+over their shoulders, as they talked among themselves. What they
+said could not be heard, for they spoke in whispers.
+
+"I hope you weren't one of those boys, Bert," said Nan, as she
+passed her brother on the way home from school that afternoon.  "If
+you were--"
+
+"You needn't worry," he said, with a smile.  "I'm not ready to
+smoke yet."
+
+"Nor ever, I hope," said Nan, as she turned up her little nose.
+"It--it smells so."
+
+Nothing more was heard of the smoking matter for several days,
+and it was about forgotten, when something else came to claim the
+attention of the Bobbsey twins and their friends.
+
+It was toward the close of school one afternoon,  when all the
+pupils were wishing the hands of the clock would point to letting-out
+time, that Nan, looking from the window, and away from her arithmetic
+book, saw a few white flakes of snow sifting lazily down. At once
+she was all attention, and her lesson was forgotten.
+
+"Oh!" she thought, "it's snowing! And it looks as if it would be
+a big storm! Oh, I'm so glad!"
+
+Nan did not know all the trouble and misery a big snow storm can
+cause, so she may be forgiven for wishing for one. She only saw
+the side of it that meant fun for her and her friends.
+
+The flakes were coming down faster now, and there was about them
+something which seemed to tell that this storm would be more than
+a mere flurry or squall, and that it would keep up for some time,
+making big drifts.
+
+But now a number of other pupils in the  room had noticed the
+storm, and eyes were out of doors rather than on books. The teacher
+saw that she was not getting the attention of her class, and she
+understood the reason.
+
+"Now, boys and girls," she said gently, "you can have a good time
+in the snow after you get out of here. So please give attention
+to your lessons for a few minutes more. Then you will be finished.
+Nan Bobbsey, you may go to the board and do the third example."
+
+But Nan was thinking so much of the fun she might have riding down
+hill, or snowballing with her friends, that she got the example
+wrong, and had to go to her seat. Nor was Bert any more successful.
+
+Bert was busy thinking about putting a bell and a steering wheel
+on the new bob he and Charley had made, and when he was asked how
+many times two and a half went into ten he answered: "Three." He
+was thinking how many times he would ring the bell on the bob when
+he came to a street crossing.
+
+When the Bobbsey twins, little and big, came out of school the snow
+was coming down more thickly. The flakes were not so large,  but
+there were more of them, and they blew here and there in the wind,
+drifting into piles that would make the shoveling off of walks hard
+the next day.
+
+There were just about enough of the white crystals on the ground,
+when the school children came out to make a few snowballs, and this
+they at once proceeded to do.
+
+Danny Rugg, who had not forgiven Bert for the many times the Bobbsey
+lad had gotten the best of him, threw a ball at Freddie. But Bert
+was on the watch, and managed to jump up and catch the white missile
+in his hand.  Then he threw it at Danny, striking him on the neck.
+
+"Here! Where you throwin'?" demanded Danny, in angry tones.
+
+"The same place you are," replied Bert, not a bit afraid. "Good
+weather for ice cream, Danny," he added, and Danny went off in an
+angry fashion.
+
+Other boys and girls too, threw the snowballs, but it was
+in good-natured fun, and no one was hurt. Some rough boys did use
+hard snowballs, but they were soon left to play  among themselves,
+while the others amused themselves with soft and fluffy missiles,
+which, breaking as they hit, scattered the white stuff all over,
+harming no one.
+
+The girls, while they played at this sport, also indulged in washing
+the faces of each other. With handsful of snow they rubbed the ears
+and cheeks of their chums so that there came a healthy glow to the
+skin.
+
+One or two children, who lived near the school, ran in their yards
+as soon as the classes were dismissed, and brought out their sleds.
+But the snow was too thin to pack well, and at best the coasting
+was not good.
+
+"But it soon will be," declared Bert, as he and Charley walked
+along. "We must finish our bob in a hurry."
+
+"All right. We'll work on it late to-night."
+
+And so the sound of hammer, plane and saw was heard in the old
+barn, where the sled was being built, until nearly ten o'clock.
+
+"She ought to go very fast!" exclaimed Charley, as they paused to
+look at their sled.
+
+"I'm sure she will," agreed Bert. "And we'll put some carpet on
+the top of the main  board, for a cushion for some of the girls."
+His chum agreed that this would be a good plan, and so the bob was
+made very attractive for the girls.
+
+Bert and Charley took the big sled out for a private trial on a
+little hill behind the barn without telling anyone about it. They
+slid down very swiftly, and as they were walking up again Bert
+said:
+
+"I think we have a fast one all right, Charley."
+
+
+"I'm sure we have," was the answer.
+
+"It will pass anything on the main hill," went on Bert, and his
+friend believed him.
+
+The storm kept up all night, and in the morning there was snow
+enough to suit anyone.  Bert laughed as he looked out of the window
+and saw it.
+
+"There'll be coasting now all right!" he cried, as he saw the big
+stretch of white over the fields and on the hills. "We can have
+bob sled races, too."
+
+"Can't we come?" asked Flossie.
+
+"We like sled rides," added Freddie.
+
+"You may come part of the time,"  answered Bert. "But big sleds
+aren't for little folks like you."
+
+Not far from the Bobbsey home was a long hill that was most excellent
+for coasting. It was on this that Charley and Bert had decided to
+test their new sled on a long stretch.
+
+As they hauled it from the barn where it had been made, and started
+to pull it to the hill, there were many laughs at the odd homemade
+affair. For Bert and Charley had done most of the work themselves,
+and it was rather rough.
+
+"She'll never coast!" cried one boy, with a laugh. He was quite a
+friend of Danny's.
+
+"Here comes the sled that can, though!" cried another, and Danny
+himself came into view, pulling a fine, new, big bob after him.
+
+"That's the fastest one on the hill," boasted another lad who was
+helping Danny pull his sled.
+
+"Well, I think ours is fast, too," said Bert calmly.
+
+"Do you want to race?" asked Danny with a sharp glance at Bert.
+
+"I don't mind," was the answer. It  after school, following the
+first snow, and the hill was just right for coasting.
+
+"Come on! Come on!" cried a number of boys and girls, as they heard
+what went on between Danny and Bert. "There's going to be a race
+on the big hill between the big bobs."
+
+There was much excitement. The sleds were the two largest owned
+by anyone in the neighborhood, and both were fine ones. Danny had
+bought his, but Bert and Charley had made theirs, and so, though
+it was not so fancy, it was stronger. Most eyes were on Danny's
+sled, for it was painted in bright colors, and brightly varnished.
+It had a red cushion of carpet on the top, and places at the side
+to rest one's feet.
+
+The bob of Bert and Charley was built just the same, but it was
+painted in home-made fashion, and the carpet seat was an old and
+faded one. But it had a new gong and a fine big steering wheel.
+
+"All ready for the race," cried Danny, as he got his sled in
+position. "Who's going down with me?"
+
+A number of boys came forward.
+
+"Who's going with Bert and me?" asked Charley, and several others
+stepped forward.
+
+"Go ahead, if you want to come in last!" sneered Danny, as he got
+his sled in place "I'll tell 'em you're coming, Bert."
+
+"All right," was the cool answer. "Get on, boys!"
+
+Soon both sleds were filled, and all was ready for the big race--the
+first of the season.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+A NIGHT ALARM
+
+
+
+
+"Are you all ready?" called Danny to Bert, looking over at the
+home-made bob, and there was something like contempt in his tone.
+
+"All ready," answered Bert. "I'll start as soon as you give the
+word."
+
+"We ought to have someone to shove us off," suggested Danny. "It
+won't be fair if one or the other gets a head-start."
+
+"Hi! He's afraid already!" cried Charley Mason. "He knows we're
+going to beat!"
+
+"I am not!" retorted Danny. "It will be a walk-over for me once
+I start. But I don't want Bert Bobbsey saying I took advantage of
+him, after the race is over."
+
+"You needn't be afraid--I won't say so--I won't have to," replied
+Bert. "All the same I think it would be better if we each had a
+push. I want to be fair, too."
+
+"Hey, Bert!" called a shrill voice, as the elder Bobbsey lad was
+looking about for some on the hill to whom he might appeal. "Can't
+I ride down with you, Bert?"
+
+It was Freddie who called, and he came running up, anxious to take
+part in the exciting race.
+
+"No, Freddie, not this time," explained Bert kindly. "I want only
+large boys with me in the race. I'll give you a ride afterward."
+
+"After I beat him, he means," sneered Danny.
+
+"Come on, let's race if we're going to," called some of the boys
+on Danny's sled.
+
+"Yes; don't stay here all day."
+
+"Get a move on!"
+
+"We'll beat, anyhow, what's the use of racing?"
+
+There were only a few of things that those on the big new sled of
+Danny's, called to those on Bert's bob. On their part Bert's friends
+voiced such remarks as:
+
+"We're not so strong on looks, but we'll get there first!"
+
+"We're going to give Danny a tow to the bottom of the hill!"
+
+"He won't know he's moving, once Bert's sled gets started going!"
+
+"Well, what are we going to do?" asked Danny at last. "Shall we
+shove off ourselves?"
+
+Just then there came along two large boys, Frank Cobb, and his
+particular chum, Irving Knight.
+
+"What's going on here; a race?" asked Frank.
+
+"It looks that way," said Irving.
+
+"Oh, will you push us off?" begged Bert, appealing to Frank, whose
+father worked in Mr. Bobbsey's lumber yard.
+
+"Sure we will," answered Frank good-naturedly.  "Take the other
+sled, Irving," he said to his chum, "and we'll give 'em an even
+start. Then we'll see which beats, and may the best sled win!"
+
+"That's what I say!" cried Irving.
+
+The two larger boys took their places behind the bobs. They slowly
+shoved them to the edge of the hill, held them there a moment,
+and, at a nod to each other, shoved them down evenly.
+
+"Hurray!" cried the crowd of other coasters.  "There they go!"
+
+"And Danny's ahead!" said some of his friends.
+
+"No, Bert's sled is!" shouted his admirers.  As a matter of fact,
+though, both sleds were even at the start. On and on they went very
+swiftly, for the hill had been worn smooth.  Then Bert saw his bob
+getting ahead a little, and he felt that he was going to win easily.
+
+But he was glad too soon, for, a little later, Danny's sled shot
+ahead, and for some distance was in the lead.
+
+"Can't you beat him, Bert?" whispered  Charley Mason, who sat just
+behind his chum.
+
+"I hope so," was the answer. "But I can't  really do anything. We
+just have to depend  on the sled, you know."
+
+"Steer a little more over to the left," suggested another boy. "It
+looks smoother there."
+
+"I will," said Bert, and he turned the steering wheel of his bob,
+while Luke Morton, in  the rear, pulled hard on the bell, making
+it clang out a loud warning.
+
+"Look out where you're going, Bert Bobbsey!" warned Danny, looking
+back. "You're coming over on my side of the hill!"
+
+"No I'm not. I'm away from the middle, even," said Bert, "Besides,
+I'm behind you."
+
+"I know you are, and you're going to stay there; but I don't want
+you to run into me."
+
+Bert thought of the time, the winter before, when Danny had run
+into him, and broken his sled, but he said nothing. He did not want
+that kind of an accident to be repeated if he could help it.
+
+On, on and on dashed the big bobs, with the crowd on the hill, and
+a number of coasters scattered along the way, watching anxiously.
+As soon as Bert had steered over to the left his sled began to go
+faster, as the snow was packed better there. He was fast catching
+up to Danny, when one of the boys on that bob, looking back, saw
+it, and warned the steersman.
+
+"He's coming, Danny," he cried.
+
+"Oh, he is; eh? Well, he won't pass me," and Danny steered his sled
+over directly in  front of Bert's, almost causing Bert to collide
+with him.
+
+"Shame!" cried some watchers. "That wasn't fair!"
+
+"Let him keep on his own side then," warned Danny.
+
+But this mean trick did Danny little good for, though Bert was
+forced to go to the right, to avoid crashing into Danny, he, most
+unexpectedly, found good coasting there, and he shot ahead until
+his sled was even with that of the bully's.
+
+"Better look out, Danny," warned the boy sitting directly back of
+him. "He's crowding us fast."
+
+"Oh, it's only a spurt. We'll soon be at the bottom of the hill
+and win."
+
+On and on came Bert's bob, the _Flier_. It was a little ahead
+of Danny's now, and the latter, seeing this, steered over, thinking
+the going was better there.
+
+"Look out!" warned Bert "Who's crowding over now?"
+
+"Well, I've got a right here!" snarled Danny.
+
+But Bert knew his rights also, and would not give away. He held to
+his place, and Danny dared not come too close. Then, as Bert found
+himself on smooth, hard-packed snow, he steered as straight as he
+could. More and more ahead of Danny he went, until he was fully in
+front of him.
+
+"We're going to win! We're going to win!" cried Bert's friends.
+"We're going to win the race!"
+
+Danny was wild with anger. He steered his sled over sharply, hoping
+to get on the same track as was Bert and so pass him. But it was
+not to be. Danny took too sudden a turn, and the next instant his
+bob overturned, spilling everyone off.
+
+There was a cry of surprise at the accident, and some of those on
+Bert's sled looked back.  Bert himself looked straight ahead as a
+steersman always should.
+
+"Danny's upset!" cried Charley.
+
+"I'm sorry!" said Bert "Now he'll claim the race wasn't fair."
+
+And that is what Danny did when he picked himself up, and walked
+down to meet Bert,  whose bob got safely to the foot of the hill,
+and so won the race.
+
+"Aw, I'd have beaten if you hadn't gotten in my way so I had to
+steer over," cried Danny.
+
+"Don't talk that way now," said Irving, who, with Frank Cobb had
+come to the end of the hill. "Bert beat you fair and square."
+
+"Aw, well--" grumbled Danny.
+
+"I'll race over again, if you like," offered Bert.
+
+"Yes, and do the same thing," grumbled Danny. "I will not. I know
+my sled is the best."
+
+But few others, save those who hoped for a ride on it, agreed with
+the bully, and Bert's home-made bob was held to be champion of the
+hill.
+
+Then came many more coasts, Bert giving Nan and Flossie and Freddie,
+and a number of their little girl and boy friends, several rides.
+
+Until late that evening the coasting kept up, and Bert and Charley
+were congratulated on all sides for the fine bob they had made. And
+what fun Bert had home after supper, telling of how he had won the
+race!
+
+It was in the middle of the night, when the Bobbsey household was
+awakened by the ringing of fire bells. They all heard the alarm,
+and as Papa Bobbsey counted the number, he said to his wife:
+
+"That must be near here. Guess I'll look.  It's a windy night and
+a fire in my lumber yard would be very bad."
+
+As he went to the window he saw a glare on the sky in the direction
+of the lake.
+
+"It _is_ near here!" he said. "The engines are going past our
+house! I'd better take a look."
+
+"Can I come?" asked the little "Fat Fireman" from his cot. "Take
+me, papa!"
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+WHO WAS SMOKING?
+
+
+
+
+Mr. Bobbsey laughed, though he was worried about the fire. It seemed
+so odd for Freddie to want to go out in the cold, dark  night.
+
+"Not this time, my Fat Fireman!" said Freddie's papa, "It may be
+only a pile of rubbish on fire. I'll tell you about it when I come
+back."
+
+"Where does it seem to be?" asked Mrs.  Bobbsey.
+
+"Down near the lake," answered her husband.  "I'm afraid," he added
+in a lower voice, "that it may be our boathouse. It seems to be
+about there."
+
+"Oh, I hope not!" she exclaimed. "Still, better that than our own
+house."
+
+"If it's near the lake, papa," said Flossie, who heard part of
+what her father said, "it  will be easy to put it out, for there
+is plenty of water."
+
+"Pooh! engines have their own water!" exclaimed Freddie, who had
+rather hazy notions as to how fire engines work. He was getting over
+his disappointment about not being allowed to go with his father,
+and had again cuddled down in his warm crib.
+
+Another engine dashed by the Bobbsey house, and the ringing of the
+alarm bell increased.  The voices and footsteps of many persons,
+as they rushed on to the blaze, could also be heard, and there
+resounded the cry of:
+
+"_Fire! Fire! Fire!_"
+
+Bert, who had been aroused with the others of the household, was
+dressing in his room.  He felt that his father would let him go
+to the fire. At any rate he intended to be all ready when he made
+his request, so as not to cause delay.
+
+"Are you going, Bert?" asked Nan, as from her room, next to that
+of her brother, she heard him moving around.
+
+"I am, if father will take me," he said,
+
+"It's too cold for me!" Nan exclaimed with  a shiver, as she went
+back in bed again. She bad gotten up to peer from the window at
+the red glare in the sky.
+
+From the third floor, where Dinah slept, the colored cook now called
+down:
+
+"Am anybody sick, Mrs. Bobbsey? What am de mattah down dere?"
+
+"It's a fire, Dinah !" answered her mistress.
+
+"Oh good land a'massy! Don't tell me  dat!" she cried. "Sam! Sam!
+Wake up.  De house is on fire an' you'se got t' sabe me!"
+
+"No, no, Dinah!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey, to  calm the cook. "It isn't
+this house. It's  down by the lake. If you look out of your  window
+you can see it."
+
+Dinah hurried across to her window, and evidently saw the reflection
+of the blaze, for she exclaimed:
+
+"Thank goodness it ain't yeah! Mah goodness, but I suah was skarit
+fo' a minute!"
+
+By this time Mr. Bobbsey had dressed, and had started downstairs.
+Bert came out of his room, also ready for the street.
+
+"May I come, father?" he asked.
+
+"Well, I declare!" exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey,  in surprise. "So you
+got dressed too, did you?"
+
+"Yes, sir. May I come?"
+
+Mr. Bobbsey hesitated a moment, and then with a smile, said:
+
+"Well, I suppose so, since you are all ready.  I'm taking Bert,"
+he called to his wife.  "Freddie, you'll have to be the Fat Fireman
+while I'm gone, and look after the house."
+
+"That's what I will," said Freddie, "and if any sparks fly over
+here I'll throw the bathroom  sponge on 'em!"
+
+"Good!" cried Mr. Bobbsey, and then, he and Bert hurried out.
+
+The fire was now larger, as they could see when they got out in
+the street. There was no wind and the flames went straight up in
+the air. There were not many buildings down by the lake, only some
+boat shelters and places like that. The Bobbsey's boathouse was
+a fine large one, having recently been made bigger as Mr. Bobbsey
+was thinking of buying a new motor boat.
+
+Mr. Bobbsey and his son hurried on, following the crowd that filled
+the street leading to  the lake. Several gentlemen knew the lumber
+merchant, and called to him.
+
+"I guess you're glad this isn't your lumber yard," said one.
+
+"Yes, indeed," was the answer. "I had a little fire there once, and
+I don't want another.  But I'm afraid this is some of my property
+just the same."
+
+"Is that so?"
+
+"Yes, it looks to be my boathouse."
+
+"So it does!" cried another man.
+
+"Oh, father!" cried Bert. "Our nice boathouse!"
+
+"Well, the firemen may save it," said Mr.  Bobbsey. "We will hope
+so, anyhow," he added.
+
+They had not gone on much farther before Mr. Bobbsey and Bert could
+see that it was indeed their boathouse on fire. One side was all
+ablaze, and the flames were slowly, but surely, eating their way
+over the whole place. But two engines were now pumping streams of
+water on the fire, and they might put it out before too much damage
+was done.
+
+Mr. Bobbsey rushed forward, and, as the  policemen and firemen knew
+him, they let him get close to the boathouse.
+
+"You stay here, Bert," said Mr. Bobbsey to his son.
+
+"Where are you going?" Bert wanted to know.
+
+"I'm going to see if we can save any of the boats."
+
+There was a sailing craft, a number of rowboats, and a small gasoline
+launch in the boat-house.  They had been stored away for the winter.
+
+"Come on, men!" cried Mr. Bobbsey, as he saw some of his workmen
+in the crowd. "Help me save the boats!"
+
+All rushed forward willingly, and, as there was part of the place
+where the flames had not yet reached, they could make their way
+into the house. They began lowering the boats into the icy water,
+while the firemen played the several lines of hose on the flames.
+
+The third engine was now working, and so much water was pumped that
+even a larger fire could not have stood it for very long.
+
+The blaze began to die down, and when Mr.  Bobbsey and his men were
+about to lower the gasoline launch into the icy water the chief
+ran up, saying:
+
+"You don't need to do that! We've got the fire under control now.
+It will soon be out."
+
+"Are you sure?" asked the lumber merchant.
+
+"Yes. You can see for yourself. Leave the boat there. It will be
+all right."
+
+Mr. Bobbsey looked, and was satisfied that the larger part of the
+boathouse would be saved. So he and his men stopped their work,
+and went outside to cool off.
+
+A little later the fire was practically out, but one engine continued
+to throw water on the smouldering sparks. The crowd began to leave
+now, for there was nothing more to see, and it was cold.
+
+"My!" exclaimed Bert as his father came back to where he had left
+his son, "it didn't take long to settle that fire."
+
+"No, we have a good fire department," replied Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+The fire chief came up to Mr. Bobbsey, who expressed his thanks
+for the quick work of the firemen.
+
+"Have you any idea what started the fire, Mr. Bobbsey?" asked the
+chief. "Was the boathouse in use?"
+
+"No," was the answer. "It had been closed for the winter some time
+ago--in fact as soon as the carpenters finished making the changes.
+No one was in it as far as I know."
+
+"Then how do you account for this?" asked the chief, as he held
+out a box partly filled with cigarettes. "I picked these up in the
+living room," he went on, for the boathouse had one room carpeted,
+and fitted with chairs and tables, and electric lights where the
+family often spent evenings during Summer.
+
+"You found those cigarettes in the living room of the boathouse?"
+asked Mr. Bobbsey.
+
+"I did; and the question is who was smoking?"  went on the chief.
+"In my opinion the end of a cigarette thrown aside, or perhaps a
+lighted match dropped in some corner, started this fire. Who was
+smoking?"
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+A CONFESSION
+
+
+
+
+The chief handed Mr. Bobbsey the half-emptied  cigarette box. Mr.
+Bobbsey turned it over and over in his hand, as though trying to
+learn to whom it belonged.
+
+"They are something I never use," he said.  "I don't suppose we
+could tell, from this, who  had it?"
+
+"No," and the chief shook his head. "It's a common kind, and a good
+many of the stores sell 'em. A good many of the boys smoke 'em,
+too--that's the worst of it," and he looked at Bert a bit sharply.
+
+"Oh, you needn't be afraid for my boy!" exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey
+hastily. "I have Bert's promise that he won't smoke until he's a
+man, and perhaps he won't want to then."
+
+"Good!" exclaimed the chief heartily.
+
+"That's what I like to hear. But It's as certain  as guns is, and
+nothing more certain than them, that some one was smoking in your
+boat-house, and set fire to it. And I wish we could find out who
+it was."
+
+"So do I!" exclaimed Mr. Bobbsey. "If only to teach them a lesson
+on how dangerous it is to be careless. Well, I suppose we can't
+do anything more," and he sighed, for half the beautiful boathouse
+was in ruins.
+
+Mr. Bobbsey and Bert were soon at home, telling the news to the
+folks. Freddie's eyes opened wide in surprise as he listened to
+the account of how the firemen had put out the fire.
+
+"Oh, I wish I could have been there!" he cried. "I could have
+helped."
+
+"What caused the fire?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey of her husband, when
+the children had gone to bed again.
+
+"Some boys--or some one else smoking cigarettes, the chief thinks.
+We found a half-emptied box."
+
+In her room Nan heard the word "cigarettes"  and she wondered if
+her brother could  be at fault, for she remembered he had told her
+how once some boys had asked him to go off in secret and smoke.
+
+Mr. Bobbsey was up early, for he wanted to see by daylight what
+damage the fire had done, and he also wanted to see the insurance
+company about the loss. The beautiful boat-house looked worse in
+the daylight than it had at night, and the neat living room, where
+some of the Bobbseys had spent many happy hours, while others of
+them were out in the boats, was in ruins.
+
+The fire chief came down while Mr. Bobbsey was there, and they
+talked matters over.  The chief said he would send one of his men
+around to the different stores that sold cigarettes, to try and
+learn if boys had purchased any that afternoon, for it was against
+the law to sell cigarettes to anyone under sixteen years  of age.
+
+One afternoon Danny's father, Mr. Rugg, came home unexpectedly, and,
+wanting something that was out in his barn went to get it.  As he
+entered the place he heard a scramble of feet, some excited whispers,
+and then   silence. He was sure that some one was in the place and
+had run to hide.
+
+"Who's there?" called Mr. Rugg sharply.  There was no answer, but
+he listened and was sure he heard some one in the little room where
+the harness was kept.
+
+He walked over to the door, and tried to open it. Some one on the
+inside was holding it, but Mr. Rugg gave a strong pull, and the
+door flew open. To the surprise of Mr. Rugg he saw his son Danny,
+and a number of boys, hiding there, and the smell of cigarette
+smoke was very strong.
+
+"Danny!" exclaimed his father sternly, "what does this mean?"
+
+"We--were--playing!" stammered Danny.  "Playing hide and seek."
+
+"And to play that is it necessary to smoke?" Mr. Rugg asked sharply.
+
+"We--we aren't smoking," answered Danny.
+
+"Not now, but you have been. I can smell it plainly. Go into the
+house, Danny, and these other boys must go home. If I find them
+smoking in my barn again I shall punish them. You might have set
+it on fire."
+
+Danny had nothing to say, indeed, there was little he could say.
+He had been caught in the act.
+
+The other boys slunk off, and Danny went into the house, his father
+following.
+
+"Danny, I am very sorry to learn this," said Mr. Rugg. "I did not
+know that you smoked--a boy of your age!"
+
+"Well, I never smoked much. Lots of the fellows smoke more than I
+do."
+
+"That is no excuse. It is a bad habit for a boy. You may go to your
+room. I will consider your case later."
+
+From then on Mr. Rugg did some hard thinking. He began "putting
+two and two together"  as the old saying has it. He remembered the
+Bobbsey boathouse fire. On that occasion Danny had come in late,
+and there had been the smell of smoke on his clothes.
+
+Mr. Rugg went to his son's room. A search showed a number of empty
+cigarette boxes, and cigarette pictures, and the boxes were all
+of the same kind--the kind that had been found in the half-burned
+boathouse.
+
+Danny was accused by his father of having been smoking in the boathouse
+just before the  fire, and Danny was so miserable, and so surprised
+at being caught in the barn, that he made a full confession.
+Tearfully he told the story, how he and some other boys, finding
+the boathouse unlocked, for some unknown reason, had gone in, and
+smoked to their heart's content.
+
+They did not mean to cause the fire, and had no idea that they
+were to blame. One of the boys was made ill by too much smoking,
+and they all hurried away.
+
+But they must have left a smouldering stump of cigarette in some
+corner, or a carelessly-thrown match, that started the blaze. Then,
+when the fire bells sounded, and they learned what had happened,
+Danny and all the boys promised each other that they would keep
+the secret.
+
+"Well, Danny, I can't tell you how sorry I am," said Mr. Rugg,
+when the confession was over. "Sorry not only that Mr. Bobbsey's
+boathouse was burned, but because you have deceived me, and your
+good mother, and smoked in secret. I feel very badly about it."
+
+Danny did, too, for though he was not a  very good boy, his heart
+was in the right place, and with a little more care he might have
+been a different character. There was, however, hope for him.
+
+"You must be punished for this," went on Mr. Rugg, "and this punishment
+will be that you are not to have the motor boat I promised you for
+next Summer. Perhaps it will be a lesson to you."
+
+Danny wept bitterly, for he had counted very much on having this
+boat. But it was a good lesson to him. Mr. Rugg also told the
+fathers of the other boys whom he caught with his son, and these
+boys were punished in different ways.
+
+Mr. Rugg also informed Mr. Bobbsey how the boathouse had been set
+afire, and expressed his sorrow. And so the mystery was cleared
+up.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE FAT LADY'S LETTER
+
+
+
+
+"Well," remarked Nan Bobbsey, a few days after it had become known
+that Danny Rugg was to blame for the fire in the boathouse, "I wish
+we could find out, as easily as we found out about Danny, who has
+our cat Snoop."
+
+"So do I," added Flossie. "Poor Snoop!  I do miss him so much."
+
+"So do I!" exclaimed Freddie. "But Snap is a nice dog, and I guess
+I like dogs better than cats, anyhow."
+
+"Why, Freddie Bobbsey!" cried Nan, "Don't you love Snoop any more?"
+
+"Oh, yes, 'course I do, but then he isn't here to be loved, and
+Snap is."
+
+"Yes, I guess that does make a difference,"  admitted Nan. "I
+wonder if papa wouldn't  let us go down to the railroad office and
+inquire  once more about him? Maybe, as it's getting  cold weather
+now, Snoop will come in from the fields where he may have been
+staying ever since the railroad wreck."
+
+"Let's ask," cried Freddie, always ready for action.
+
+It was Saturday, and there was no school.  Bert had gone off coasting
+on his new bob, but Nan did not want to go, her mother having asked
+her to stay and help with the dusting.  But now the little bit of
+housework was over, and Nan was free.
+
+"We'll go down to papa's office," she said to Flossie and Freddie,
+"and ask him if we can go to the railroad. I know one of the ticket
+agents and he can tell us of whom to ask about our cat."
+
+Mrs. Bobbsey had no objections, and soon, with Flossie and Freddie
+at her side, Nan set off for her father's office in the lumber
+yard.  The smaller twins were delighted.
+
+"And maybe we can find our silver cup, too," suggested Freddie,
+as he trudged along in the snow, now and then stopping to make a
+white ball which he threw at the fence or telegraph pole.
+
+"The fat lady has our cup--I'm sure of that," said Flossie.
+
+"Well, we can ask papa if he has heard from the circus people,"
+suggested Nan.
+
+Mr. Bobbsey was rather surprised to see his three children come
+into the office, but he was glad to meet them, for it made a break
+in his day's work. After a little thought he said they might go
+to the railroad office to inquire about Snoop. Nan and her brother
+and sister went in a trolley car, and were soon at the depot.
+
+But to their disappointment there was no news of Snoop. The fat,
+black cat seemed to have completely disappeared.
+
+"I've had the switchmen and trackmen keep a lookout for some time
+past," the agent told Nan, for Mr. Bobbsey did a large business
+in shipping lumber over the railroad, and many of the men were his
+friends. "One of the switchmen near where the wreck was, caught
+a lot of cats, that must have been living out in the fields all
+Summer," went on the agent, "but they were all sorts of colors. None
+was  pure black, so I knew they could not be yours.  I'm sorry."
+
+"Yes, so are we," replied Nan. "Well, I guess Snoop is lost for
+good. He has been away a long time now."
+
+On the way back to Mr. Bobbsey's office the trolley car got off the
+track, on account of so much snow on the rails, and the children
+spent some time watching the men get it back, the electricity from
+the wire and rails making pretty flashes of blue fire.
+
+"What luck?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, as the three came in his private
+office, their faces shining and red with the glow of winter.
+
+"None," said Nan sadly. "Snoop is gone."
+
+"Have you heard from the circus fat lady yet, papa?" asked Flossie.
+
+"Yes, we want our cup back," added her  brother.
+
+"No word yet," answered Mr. Bobbsey.  "That circus is traveling all
+over Cuba, and the letters I sent never seem to catch up to them.
+However, I am sending one on ahead now, to a city where they will
+soon give a  show. The fat lady will find it there waiting for her,
+and she may answer then."
+
+And with this the children had to be content.  Getting back home,
+Flossie and Freddie  took out their sleds and went for a coast on
+a  small hill, not far from their home. This  was where the smaller
+children had their fun,  leaving the larger hill for the bigger
+girls and  boys.
+
+"Well, after this I think we all need something to cheer us up,"
+said Papa Bobbsey, who came home from the office early that day.
+
+"Oh, have you got something good?" asked Nan, for she saw a queer
+little twinkle in her father's eyes, and she knew that this generally
+meant a treat of some kind.
+
+"I have some good news, if you would like to hear it," he said, as
+he drew a letter from his pocket.
+
+"Is it to tell that some of our friends are coming to see us?"
+asked Bert.
+
+"Well, yes, I think you will call it a visit from a friend--at least
+part of it," said Papa Bobbsey. "Now listen. This is a letter from
+the fat lady in the circus."
+
+"What!" cried Flossie--"the one who has our cup?"
+
+"The same," said Mr. Bobbsey with a smile. "And she has more than
+your cup.  Listen," and he read the letter.
+
+It was too long to put it all in here, but it went on to say how
+the fat lady really had the valuable silver cup belonging to the
+twins.
+
+"They loaned it to me to drink from," she wrote, "and when the
+train stopped so suddenly, there was so much confusion that I put
+it in my valise by mistake. I have had it ever since and have been
+wondering how I could send it back to you. The circus went to Cuba
+soon after that, and has been traveling around that island ever
+since. I have only just received your last letter asking me about
+the cup, or I would have answered before. If you will send me
+directions how to ship the cup to you I shall be very glad to return
+it."
+
+"Oh goodie!" cried Freddie. "We'll have our nice cup again!"
+
+"Is that all in the letter, papa?" asked Flossie.
+
+"No, not quite," he said. "I'll read a little more," and he read:
+
+"'When our circus was wrecked we lost a valuable trick dog. He could
+play soldier, say his prayers, turn somersaults, and do a number
+of tricks. The ringmaster feels very badly about losing him, and
+has tried to locate him, but without success. If you should hear
+of anyone near you having such a dog we would be much obliged if
+you would send him to us, as he belongs to the circus.'"
+
+There was a moment of silence after Bobbsey read this, and then
+Freddie said:
+
+"Why that must be Snap--our pet dog!  Oh, papa you won't give him
+back to the circus; will you?"
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+SNAP AND SNOOP
+
+
+
+
+All of the Bobbsey twins--Nan, Bert, Flossie and Freddie--looked
+so serious over the prospect of losing Snap that Mr. Bobbsey had
+to laugh. He just couldn't help it.
+
+"Well, I don't see anything to make fun over," said Nan, with a
+little pout.
+
+"Why, you all act as though you had lost your best friend--or were
+going to."
+
+"Well, Snap _is_ one of our best friends, aren't you Snap?"
+said Freddie.
+
+"Still, if he belongs to the circus I don't see but what I'll have
+to send him back," went on Mr. Bobbsey, slowly.
+
+At this Flossie burst into tears, and Mrs.  Bobbsey, putting her
+arms about the little girl, said to her husband:
+
+"Are you in earnest Richard? Don't tease  the child."
+
+"I'm not, Mary. The fat lady wrote just that. I believe the dog we
+have does belong to the circus."
+
+"Then we'll have to give him up I suppose," and Mrs. Bobbsey sighed,
+for she had grown very much attached to the fine animal.
+
+"Well, we won't have to send him back right away," said Mr. Bobbsey.
+"I will have to get more particulars. But I did not finish the fat
+lady's letter."
+
+"What! Is there more news in it?" asked Nan.
+
+"Listen," said Mr. Bobbsey, as he went on reading:
+
+"'We are sorry about losing our trick dog,' the fat lady wrote,
+'but I picked up a big black cat when I walked out of the train.  I
+brought him to Cuba with me, and I am teaching him tricks. He may
+be as valuable as our dog was.'"
+
+"A black cat!" cried Nan.
+
+"It's our Snoop!" shouted Freddie, "yes, that's it! The fat lady
+has our cat as well  as our cup! Oh, papa, make her give back our
+Snoop!"
+
+Mr. Bobbsey laughed.
+
+"You see how it is," he said. "She has our cat, and we have their
+dog. We'll have to give up our dog to get our cat."
+
+The Bobbsey twins had not thought of this before. They looked
+strangely at one another.
+
+"Papa!" cried Freddie, jumping up and down in his excitement, "can't
+we keep both--the  circus dog and our cat? Oh, do please, let us."
+
+"But maybe Snap would fight Snoop," said Flossie. "We wouldn't want
+that."
+
+Freddie thought for a moment.
+
+"I don't believe he would," he said at last.
+
+"Well," said Papa Bobbsey, after a bit, "I'll see what I can do.
+I'll write to the fat lady, telling her how to ship your silver
+cup, and also how to send Snoop. And I'll ask if we can buy Snap.
+How will that do?"
+
+"Fine!" cried all the Bobbsey twins at once, and they made a rush
+for Mr. Bobbsey, hugging and kissing him.
+
+The letter was sent to the fat lady, and then came a time of anxious
+waiting. Never before had the children seemed to care so much for
+Snap.
+
+One day a letter came, saying that the silver cup had been sent,
+and also Snoop, the cat.
+
+"But what about Snap, papa?" asked Nan.
+
+"Does she say the circus will sell him?"
+
+"No, the man who owns him is away for a few days. When he comes
+back he will let me know. But, anyhow, you will have your cup and
+cat back."
+
+"But we want Snap, too!" said Flossie.
+
+Several more days passed. They lengthened into a week, and still
+no news came from where the circus was: All the Bobbsey twins could
+hope was that their cat and cup were on the way, and that the man
+who owned Snap would consent to sell him.
+
+The twins did not feel much like having fun. There was a warm spell,
+and all the snow had melted.
+
+One day an express wagon stopped in front of the Bobbsey house.
+
+It was a Saturday, and there was no  school, and, as it happened,
+all four of the twins were in.
+
+"Two boxes for you, Mrs. Bobbsey," said the driver, as he opened
+his receipt book. "I'll bring them in while you sign."
+
+The man came up the walk with two boxes.  One was small, and
+the other larger, with slats on one end. And from this box came a
+peculiar noise.
+
+"Listen!" cried Bert.
+
+"It's a cat!" shouted Freddie.
+
+"It's Snoop--our Snoop!" cried Flossie.
+
+Quickly the boxes were carried into the house. Bert got a hammer
+and screw driver and soon had opened the one containing the black
+cat. Snap, the dog, walked slowly into the room.
+
+"Oh dear!" cried Flossie as she saw him, "now maybe they'll fight!"
+
+"I'll hold Snap," volunteered Freddie.
+
+"Come on, Snoop! Come out!" cried Bert, as he pried off the last
+slat.
+
+"Meouw!" cried Snoop, as he came slowly out of the box in which he
+had ridden from Cuba.
+
+Out walked the black cat. He looked about him strangely for a moment,
+and then began to purr, and rubbed up against Flossie's legs.
+
+They all looked anxiously at Snap. The dog glanced at the cat,
+stretched lazily and wagged his tail. Snoop came over to him, and
+the two animals sniffed at each other, Mrs. Bobbsey holding Snap
+by the collar.  Then, to the surprise of all, Snoop rubbed against
+the legs of the dog, and, on his part, Snap, wagging his tail
+in friendly, welcoming fashion, put out his red tongue and licked
+Snoop's fur.
+
+"He's kissing Snoop! He's kissing Snoop!" cried Freddie.
+
+"Yes, they love each other!" exclaimed Flossie. "They are not going
+to fight! Oh, how glad I am!" and she danced in delight.
+
+"Oh, if only we can keep Snap now," said Nan, while Mrs. Bobbsey,
+satisfied that the two animals would be friends, had opened the other
+express box. It contained the twins' silver cup, so long missing.
+
+Mr. Bobbsey came home soon after that.  His face was smiling.
+
+"Oh, papa!" Flossie greeted him, "Snoop came, and Snap kissed him!"
+
+"May we keep Snap, papa?" asked Freddie.
+
+"Yes," was Mr. Bobbsey's answer. "I have a letter from the circus
+man, and he will sell Snap to me. I have already sent the money.
+And there is another letter from the fat lady, telling about some
+of the new tricks she taught Snoop, so you can make him do them."
+
+"Oh! Oh! Oh!" cried the Bobbsey twins in delight, as they looked
+at their two pets.
+
+"What lots of things have happened since we came back from the
+seashore," said Nan, a little later. "I wonder if the rest of the
+Winter will be as lively as this first part has been?"
+
+"Maybe," said Bert with a smile.
+
+And whether it was or not you may learn by reading the next volume
+of this series, to be called: "The Bobbsey Twins at Snow Lodge,"
+in which we will once more hear of the doings of Flossie, Freddie,
+Nan and Bert.
+
+After reading the fat lady's second letter the  twins got Snoop to
+do some of the tricks the cat had learned. He was not as smart at
+them as Snap was at his, but then cats never do learn to do tricks
+as well as do dogs.
+
+Still everyone agreed that the fat lady had done her training
+well. As for Snap, he and Snoop became firmer friends every day,
+and often the cat went to sleep on Snap's back, or between his
+forepaws as he lay stretched out in front of the fire.
+
+And the silver cup, which, with Snoop, had gone on such a long
+journey, was put back in its place on the mantle, to be admired by
+all.
+
+Now my little story has come to an end, but I hope you children
+who have read it will care to hear more of the Bobbsey twins and
+the things they did. So I will say good-bye for a while, trusting
+to meet you all again.
+
+THE END 
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL ***
+
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