Guns and Snowshoes | Page 4

reach home."
With his coat buttoned up around his neck, and his head bent low to
escape the scudding snow, Andrew Felps hurried away from the depot
and up to the main street of Fairview. Then he made another turn,
presently reaching the spot where our heroes and the other lads were
having their sport.
"Hi! here comes old Felps!" cried Giant. "We ought to give him
something to remember us by!"
"Don't you do it!" returned Snap quickly. "He doesn't know what fun is,
and he'd be sure to make trouble."
Some other boys were coming up, and the snowballs began to fly more
furiously than ever. Snap, Shep, Whopper and Giant were on one side,
and a boy named Carl Dudder and five other town lads on the other
side. In the midst of the rallies came a yell of alarm, followed by
several loud cries of rage.
"Hullo! look there!" exclaimed Whopper. "Old Felps has been knocked
into the middle of next month. There goes his hat in the snow too! Who
threw at him?"
"I didn't," answered Giant, promptly.
"Neither did I," came from Snap.

"Nor I," added Shep.
The saw mill owner was flat on his back, his silk hat on one side of him
and a package of books and papers on the other.
"Maybe he slipped on some ice," suggested Snap.
"Hi! hi! who threw that snowball!" roared Andrew Felps, savagely, as
he arose to his feet. "You young villains! I'll have the law on you for
this!"
He scrambled to his feet and glared around him. All of the boys had
stopped throwing at once and gazed at him curiously.
"Ha! I know you!" went on Andrew Felps, striding up to Snap. "It was
you who hit me in the ear and knocked me down!"
"No, sir, I did not," answered Charley.
"I know better! I saw you do it!"
"You are mistaken, Mr. Felps! I was throwing across the street."
"Don't tell me! I know better, Dodge. You hit me and you did it on
purpose."
At this Snap merely shrugged his shoulders.
"I'll have the law on you," fumed Andrew Felps.
"Snap didn't hit you," said Shep.
"Ha! then perhaps you threw the snowball," said the saw mill owner
suspiciously.
"I did not."
"I know you boys, and I have not forgotten your work against me last
summer," growled Andrew Felps.

"And we haven't forgotten you," answered Snap, coldly. "You have no
right to accuse me of something I didn't do."
"Bah! If I find out who hit me I'll make it warm for him!" And having
thus delivered himself Andrew Felps picked up his silk hat and his
bundle and went on his way, in a worse humor than ever.
"Isn't he a darling?" observed Whopper sarcastically. "How I would
love to own him for a brother!"
"I wonder who did hit him?" mused Snap. "The snowball couldn't have
come from over here."
"I know who hit him," said a little boy named Benny Grime.
"Who was it, Benny?"
"Ham Spink."
"Ham Spink!" cried Snap and Shep in concert.
"Yes."
"Why, he isn't here," said Whopper.
"He just came up, threw one snowball, and ran away. I guess he meant
to hit somebody else and the snowball hit Mr. Felps instead," went on
the small boy. "Don't let him know I told you, or he'll wax me good for
it."
"I shan't tell Ham," said Snap. "But this is strange," he continued.
"Thought Ham was too much of a dude to throw snowballs," was
Whopper's comment. "Why, he wears a new necktie every day now,
and new patent leather shoes, and new gloves, and--"
"Don't pile it on too thick, Whopper," laughed Shep. "But I admit, he is
a dude and no mistake."

"And a sneak--to run away as soon as he hit old Felps," finished Giant.
There was no time to say more, for the snowball battle was again
raging, more furiously than ever. The balls flew on all sides, and grown
folks, coming in that direction, kept out of the way as much as possible.
"Here comes old Mammy Shrader!" cried Snap, presently. "We must be
careful not to hit her."
The woman he referred to was old and feeble and very short sighted.
She had a faded shawl over her shoulders and carried a market basket
on one arm. She went out nursing among the poor people and was well
known throughout the entire neighborhood.
As the old woman came on a snowball was thrown at her from the
other side of the street.
"Say, don't do that!" called out Snap, angrily. "Leave Mammy Shrader
alone!"
He has scarcely uttered the words when another snowball was thrown
at the aged female. This hit her on the cheek and caused