Bob the Castaway | Page 6

many
others made during the night.
That day in school Bob snapped several of the paper crackers, and in
consequence was kept in. However, his mother was visiting a neighbor,
and when he came home late that afternoon she did not see him.
That evening Ted Neefus called for Bob. They were chums of long

standing.
"Let's take a walk," suggested Ted.
"Aw, that's no fun."
"What'll we do then?"
Bob thought a few seconds.
"I'll tell you," he said. "We'll put a tic-tac on Mrs. Mooney's window.
She lives all alone, and she'll think it's a ghost rapping."
"Good! Come on. Have you got some string?"
"Sure."
So you see how poorly Bob remembered his promise of the night
before, and with what thoughtlessness he again started to indulge in a
prank--a prank which might throw a nervous woman into hysterics. Yet
in this Bob was just like thousands of other boys--he "didn't mean
anything." The trouble was he did not think.
So the two boys, their heads full of the project of making a tic-tac, stole
quietly through the village streets toward the cottage of the Widow
Mooney.

CHAPTER III
A STRANGE PROPOSITION
Perhaps some of my readers may not know what the contrivance known
as a "tic-tac" is like. Those of you who have made them, of course, do
not need to be told. If you ever put them on any person's window, I
hope you selected a house where there were only boys and girls or
young people to be startled by the tic-tac. It is no joke, though at first it
may seem like one, to scare an old person with the affair. So if any boy

or girl makes a tic-tac after the description given here, I trust he or she
will be careful on whom the prank is played.
To make a tic-tac a long string, a pin and a small nail are all that is
required. A short piece of string is broken from the larger piece, and to
one end of this latter the pin is fastened by being thrust through a knot.
To the other end or the short cord is attached the nail. Then the long
string is tied to the short string a little distance above the nail.
With this contrivance all made ready Bob and Ted sneaked up under
the front window of the widow's house. It was the work of but a
moment for Bob to stick the point of the pin in the wooden part of the
window-frame so that the nail dangled against the glass. Then, holding
the free end of the long string, he and Ted withdrew to the shadow of
some lilac bushes.
"All ready?" asked Ted.
"Sure. Here she goes!"
Bob then gently jerked the string. This swung the nail to and fro, and it
tapped on the window-pane as if some one was throwing pebbles
against the glass. This was kept up for several seconds.
The widow, who was reading in the dining-room, heard the tapping at
the glass. It startled her at first, and then, thinking some one might be at
the door, she conquered her nervousness and opened the portal. Of
course she saw no one, and the string was not observed. Neither were
the boys, hidden in the bushes.
"We fooled her," chuckled Ted, for they could see all that happened.
"Sure we did," added Bob. "Wait till she goes in and we'll do it some
more."
Somewhat puzzled, the Widow Mooney closed the door. No sooner
was she back in the dining-room than the tapping at the pane was

resumed. This time it was louder. The widow, who was quite timid and
nervous, felt frightened. She had years before believed in spirits, and
she had not altogether gotten over this.
Once more she went to the door, the boys observing her from their
hiding-place. They were so delighted with their prank, which they
thought a fine "joke," that they laughed heartily, having to hold their
hands over their mouths so as not to betray themselves.
"She don't know what it is," whispered Ted.
"Maybe she thinks it's night-hawks pecking at the window," suggested
Bob.
"Go ahead. Tap some more. She's going in."
Much puzzled by the queer noises, for no one had ever before put a
tic-tac on her window, Mrs. Mooney went back to her dining-room. But
she could not read.
"I must find out what that is," she said to herself. "If it's burglars, I'm
going to call for help. Suppose it should be thieves trying to cut one of
the window-panes? I've read of such doings."
Now, the widow was less afraid of something bodily, like burglars,
than she was of "spirits," so she resolved the next time she heard the
queer tapping to run