The Bobbsey Twins at the County Fair | Page 6

amusements at the picnic grounds. Little rustic
pavilions here and there formed places where one could sit in the shade
and eat lunch. There were swings for those who liked them, and boats
for the older ones.
A green meadow, not far away, made a fine baseball field, and Bert,
Charlie, and Dannie, with some of the older boys, at once made a rush
for the field to start a baseball game.
"You take care of the lunch, Nan," Bert begged his older sister. "I'll
come back when it's time to eat."
"Oh, I know that all right!" laughed Nan.
"Can't I play ball?" Freddie called, starting to follow Bert.
"You stay and sail your boat," Bert advised. "I made it for you to sail
on the lake."
"That means I'll have to stay and watch him so he doesn't fall in,"
sighed Nan. "Well, you can't sail it all day, Freddie. I want to have

some fun, too."
"You can sail it when I get tired," Freddie offered.
"I want to go in a big boat--a rowboat!" declared Flossie.
"I'll take you all for a row after the ball game," Bert promised, and Nan
held this pleasure out to them to get them to do what she wanted.
The fun was now in full sway at the picnic grounds. Over in the
meadow the boys were playing ball and shouting, and out on the little
lake were many rowboats containing jolly parties. Some of the picnic
folks had already started to eat their lunches.
"I'm hungry!" declared Freddie, seeing some children with sandwiches.
"So'm I!" added Flossie.
"Well, we can eat a little," decided Nan. She opened one of the smaller
boxes, and took out a few sandwiches. "Let's go over under that tree
and eat," she suggested, and soon they were sitting beneath a big pine
tree, where the ground was covered with the smooth, brown needles.
Flossie had taken only a few bites of her sandwich when she suddenly
jumped up and ran to Nan.
"Oh!" cried the little girl. "There's a snake! A snake!"
CHAPTER III
THE MERRY-GO-ROUND
Nan, though several years older than Flossie, was at first as much
frightened by the cry of "a snake!" as was her little sister. Though Bert
had often said only harmless snakes were in the woods around Lakeport,
Nan could not help jumping up with a scream and pulling Flossie
toward her.
"What's the matter?" asked Freddie, who had taken his sandwich a little

distance away to eat.
"A snake! I saw a big snake!" cried Flossie again.
"Where is it?" asked Nan, for, as yet, she had caught no sight of any
serpent.
"I--I almost sat on it," explained Flossie, clinging to Nan, and looking
down over her shoulder.
Nan glanced toward where her sister had been sitting just before the
alarm. She saw no wiggling snake crawling over the ground.
"Are you sure, Flossie?" Nan asked. "Are you sure you saw a snake?"
"Course I did. He almost put his head in my lap."
"Maybe he was hungry and wanted your sandwich," suggested Freddie.
As he spoke he stepped forward to look at the place Flossie had pointed
to as being the spot where she had seen the snake. And no sooner did
Freddie take a step than Flossie cried:
"There it is again! Oh, the snake! The snake! Don't let him get me,
Nan!"
Nan, too, saw something round and black moving near the place where
Flossie had been sitting, and, fearing for the safety of her sister, the
older Bobbsey girl lifted Flossie in her arms.
But no snake glided across the brown pine needles, and there was no
hissing sound nor any forked tongue playing rapidly in and out, as Nan
had once seen in a little snake Bert and Charlie Mason had caught.
"I don't believe there is a snake," Nan said, as Flossie slipped to the
ground. "If there was one it has gone away."
"I'll hit him with a stone!" cried Freddie, turning to look for a rock. And
as he moved Flossie cried again:

"There it is! I saw it move! That black thing!"
This time she pointed so carefully that Nan, letting her eye follow
along Flossie's finger, saw what the little girl meant. And Nan laughed.
"Why, that isn't a snake!" she cried. "It's only a crooked, black tree
branch! It does look a little like a snake, but it isn't really one, Flossie."
"But what made it move?" the little girl asked.
"I think it was Freddie, though he didn't do it on purpose," went on Nan.
"Take another step, Freddie, as you did when you were looking for a
stone."
Freddie moved a little and then they all saw what it was that had caused
Flossie's fright. A