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, it

was I 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 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 her 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 bad 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

tomorrow 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 boy, 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.

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