CHAPTER XI
DANNY'S TRICK
Nan Bobbsey stood for a moment, she hardly knew why. Perhaps shewanted to see the big snake of which Freddie spoke. It certainlywas not because she liked reptiles.
Then she thought she saw something long and black wiggling towardher, and, with a little exclamation of fright, she, too, turnedto follow the others. But, as she did so, she saw their dog Snapcome running up the hill, barking and wagging his tail. He seemedto have lost the children for a moment and to be telling them howglad 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 cameto where the little Bobbsey boy had said the snake was hiding inthe 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 stoneand threw it at the place. His aim was pretty good, but insteadof scaring away the snake, or driving back Snap, the fall of thestone only made Snap more eager to see what was there that hisfriends 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 towardthem.
"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 brotherbe bitten.
Snap rushed at the black thing so fiercely that he turned a somersaultdown 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 blackobject, but the children did not watch to see what happened, forthey were running away as fast as they could.
Then Freddie, anxious as to what would become of Snap if he foughta snake, looked back. He saw a strange sight. The dog had in hismouth the long, black thing, and was running with it toward theBobbseys 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 fastas Snap, and he soon caught up to them. Running on a little wayahead he dropped the black thing. But instead of wiggling or tryingto 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 oldblack 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 littlefellow.
"It must have," agreed Nan. "It looked like one even when Snap hadit. 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 hehad done.
"He is a good dog," observed Freddie, hearing which the animal almostwagged his tail off. "And if it had been a real snake he'd havegotten it; wouldn't you?" went on the little boy.
If barks meant anything, Snap said, with all his heart, that hecertainly would--that not even a dozen snakes could frighten a bigdog like him.
The children soon got over the little scare, and went back up thehill 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 themaway. 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 theirhands filled with blossoms the Bobbseys and the others went backto the main party.
Some of the teachers were arranging games with their pupils, andNan, Flossie and Freddie joined in, having a good time. Then, whenit was almost time to start for home, Mr. Tetlow blew loudly on awhistle 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 youmight 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 theyhad to have a drink, and Nan went with them to the spring, carryinga glass tumbler she had brought.
"This isn't like our nice silver cup that the fat lady took in thetrain," said Freddie, as he passed the glass of water very carefullyto Flossie.
"No," she said, after she had taken het drink. "I wonder if papawill ever get that back?"
"He said, the other day," remarked Nan, as she got some water forFreddie, "that he hadn't heard from the circus yet. But I thinkhe 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, Bertand the boys who had gone fishing had returned. They had one ortwo 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 afterthey're cleaned," said Nan, who was quite a little housekeeper.
"Oh, yes, there will," declared her brother "I'm going fishingagain to-morrow, and catch more."
Mr. Tetlow was going about among the teachers, asking if all theirpupils were on hand, ready for the march back. Danny Rugg and someof his close friends were missing.
"They ought not to have gone off so far." said Mr. Tetlow, as heblew several times on the whistle. Soon Danny and the other boyswere seen coming from a distant part of the grove. One of theboys, Harry White, looked very pale, and not at all well.
"What is the matter?" asked Mr. Tetlow, and he looked curiouslyat Danny and the others, and sniffed the air as though he smelledsomething.
"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'tsee how ripe apples which are the only kind there are this time ofyear--could make you ill unless you ate too many," and he lookedat 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 finetime, and there were many requests of the teachers to have anotherpicnic 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 kindergartenclass. "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 andChristmas."
"That will be better than picnics," said Freddie. "I'm going tohave 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 talkedof except the picnic, the snake scare from the old tree root, thecatching of the fish, and the illness of Harry White, for that boywas quite sick by the time town was reached, and Mr. Tetlow calleda carriage to send him home.
&nb
sp; "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 wesaw 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 Dannyonly laughed at him."
"That Danny Rugg is a bad boy," said Nan, severely. But she wassoon to see how much meaner Danny could be.
Workmen had recently finished putting some new water pipes, anda place for the children to drink, in the school yard, and onemorning, speaking to the whole school, Mr. Tetlow made a littlespeech, warning the children not to play with the faucets, andspray the water about, as some had done, in fun.
"Whoever is caught playing with the faucets in the yard after thiswill 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, andFlossie 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, andFlossie accompanied him. It was at the morning recess when, asFreddie went to get a drink at one of the new faucets, Danny sawhim. A gleam of mischief came into the eyes of the school bully.
"Want to see the water squirt, Freddie?" asked Danny. "That's anew kind of faucet. It squirts awful far."
"Does it?" asked Freddie, innocently. "How do you make it?" Hehad no idea it was forbidden fun.
"Just put your thumb over the hole, and turn the water on," directedDanny. "You, too, Flossie. It won't hurt you."
Danny looked all around, thinking he was unobserved as he gavethis bad advice. Naturally, Freddie and Flossie, being so young,suspected nothing. They covered the opening of the faucet withtheir 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 thewater that they did not observe the principal until he was closeto them. Then they started as he called out sharply:
"Freddie! Flossie! Stop that! You know that it is forbidden! Go tomy office at once and I will come and see you later, You will bepunished for this!"
With tears in their eyes the little twins obeyed. They could notunderstand it.
The Bobbsey Twins at School Page 11
