The Bobbsey Twins at the County Fair | Page 7

long, dead branch of a tree lay on the ground. The
larger end of it was close to where Flossie had been sitting with Nan,
and this end did look somewhat like a snake, with a mouth and eyes.
The middle of the stick was covered with pine needles, and the lower
end stuck out beyond the needles and dried leaves close to where
Freddie stood.
When the little boy took a step his foot touched the thin end of the
branch, and made the thick end, near Flossie, move. Flossie took this
for the swaying of a snake's head, and so she had screamed in fright.
"There's your snake--only a tree branch!" laughed Nan, as she lifted the
dead limb and held it up.
"Ho! Ho!" laughed Freddie.
"Was that it--for sure?" asked Flossie.
"Of course!" answered Nan. "Come sit down and finish your sandwich.
Then we'll play until it's time to eat our regular lunch."
"Well, I'm glad it wasn't a real snake," sighed Flossie, as she took her
place with her sister beneath the tree.

"If it had been a real snake I'd 'a' pegged a rock at it!" boasted Freddie.
This was not the only fright at the picnic, for a little girl about Flossie's
age cried when she saw a big frog in a pool, and a little boy ran
screaming to his mother because a grasshopper perched on his
shoulder.
But things like these always happen at picnics, and when the little
frights were over even the children themselves laughed at their
short-lived terror.
After the ball game Bert and Nan took the smaller Bobbsey twins for a
row in a boat. Everything went well except that Freddie, in trying to
sail his tiny ship over the side of the rowboat, nearly fell in himself. But
Bert caught him just in time and pulled him back.
Then it was time for lunch, and what a good time all the children had,
sitting at tables in the little rustic houses, or on the ground, eating from
boxes and baskets. The Bobbsey twins, with a group of their friends,
sat in a little pavilion by themselves.
Besides the lunch which each child or group of children brought, there
was to be ice cream and cake, given by the Sunday school. The big
freezers had been arranged in a sort of shed, and the cake and cream
treat was to be given after the picnic lunches had been eaten. Just
before the time for this part of the program, Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey
arrived at the grounds, driving over in the auto, as they had promised to
do.
"Well, children, having fun?" asked the father of the Bobbsey twins.
"A dandy time!" exclaimed Bert. "My team won the ball game."
"And I 'most fell out of a boat!" boasted Freddie.
"Pooh! That's nothing! I 'most saw a snake!" exclaimed Flossie.
"A snake!" cried her mother.

"It wasn't real," Nan hastened to add, and Mrs. Bobbsey seemed to
breathe easier.
"Well, you have had some excitement as well as fun," observed Mr.
Bobbsey.
"Excitement!" cried Bert. "Say, Daddy, you ought to have been there
when the truck almost smashed through the bridge!"
"Oh, did that happen?" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey.
"No, but almost," Bert went on.
"Well, it seems to me that everything 'almost' happened," said Mrs.
Bobbsey. "Flossie almost saw a snake, Freddie almost fell overboard
and the truck almost broke the bridge."
"Oh, the bridge really is broken," Nan said. And she told about that
accident. Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey had come to the picnic grounds by
another road, and so had not seen the bridge that sagged in the middle.
"Well, all's well that ends well, so they say," remarked Mr. Bobbsey,
"and we're glad you are having a good time. Yes, Mr. Blake, what is
it?" he asked, for Mr. Blake, had come to where Mr. Bobbsey was
talking to the children, and had called aloud.
"Do you want to help the ladies dish out the ice cream?" asked Mr.
Blake.
"Surely!" answered the twins' father. "Wait until I take off my coat.
Dishing out ice cream is rather messy work."
He removed his coat, hanging it on the limb of a tree near the shed
where the ice cream freezers had been placed. Mrs. Bobbsey also
offered to help, and when it became known that it was time for the ice
cream and cake treat the picnic children began gathering at the rustic
shed.
Before the dainties could be served, however, there came from down

the road, in the opposite direction from the broken bridge, a low,
rumbling sound.
"I hope it isn't going to rain," said Mrs. Morris, as she held a plate of
ice cream in one hand.
"What makes you think it is?" Mrs.