The Bobbsey Twins | Page 6

you."
"You pitch into him," grumbled Charley. "You can throw awfully
straight."
Danny prided himself on his throwing, which, however, was no better
than the throwing of the other lads, and he quickly made two hard
snowballs. With these in hand he ran out into the street and waited until
Bert's hands were empty. Then he came up still closer and threw one of
the snowballs with all his might. It struck Bert in the back of the head
and sent him staggering.
"Hi! how do you like that?" roared Danny, in high glee. "Have
another?" And as Bert stood up and looked around he let drive again,
this time hitting Bert directly in the ear. The snowball was so hard it
made Bert cry out in pain.
"For shame, Danny Rugg, to hit Bert so hard as that!" cried Nan.
"Oh, you keep still, Nan Bobbsey!" retorted Danny. "This is our sport,

not yours."
"But you shouldn't have come so close before you threw the snowball."
"I know what I'm doing," growled the big boy, running off.
The whack in the ear made that member ache, and Bert did not feel
near so full of fun when he entered the schoolyard. Several of his
friends came up to him in sympathy.
"Did he hurt you very much, Bert?" asked one.
"He hurt me enough. It wasn't fair to come so close, or to make the
snowballs so hard."
"Let us duck Danny in the snow," suggested one of the boys.
This was considered a good plan, but nobody wanted to start in, for, as
I have said before, Danny was a good deal of a bully, and could get
very rough at times.
While the boys were talking the matter over, the school bell rang and
all had to go to their classrooms. In a little while Bert's ear stopped
aching, but he did not forget how Danny Rugg had treated him.
"I'll pay him back when we go home to dinner," Bert told himself, and
laid his plans accordingly.
As soon as Bert got out of school he hurried into a corner of the yard
and made three good, hard snowballs. These he concealed under his
overcoat and then waited for Danny to appear.
The big boy must have known that Bert would try to square matters
with him, for as soon as he came out he ran in the direction of one of
the main streets of Lakeport, just the opposite direction to that which he
usually pursued.
"You shan't get away from me!" cried Bert, and ran after him. Soon he
threw one snowball and this landed on Danny's back. Then he threw

another and knocked off the bully's cap.
"Hi! stop that!" roared Danny, and stooped to pick up the cap. Whiz!
came the third snowball and hit Danny on the cheek. He let out a cry of
pain.
"I'll fix you for that, Bert Bobbsey!" he said, stooping down in the
street. "How do you like that?"
He had picked up a large chunk of ice lying in the gutter, and now he
threw it at Bert's head with all force. Bert dodged, and the ice went
sailing past him and hit the show window of a small shoe store,
shattering a pane of glass into a hundred pieces.

CHAPTER IV
THE BROKEN WINDOW
Neither Danny nor Bert had expected such an ending to the snowball
fight and for the moment neither knew what to do. Then, as the owner
of the shoe store came running out, both set off on a run.
"Stop! stop!" roared the shoe dealer, coming after them. "Stop, I say!"
But the more he cried stop the harder they ran. Both soon reached the
corner, and while Danny went up the side street, Bert went down, so
the boys soon became widely separated.
Reaching the corner, the owner of the store did not know which boy to
go after, but made up his mind to follow Bert, who could not run as fast
as Danny. So after Bert he came, with such long steps that he was soon
close to the lad.
Bert was greatly scared, for he was afraid that if he was caught he
might be arrested. Seeing an alleyway close at hand, he ran into this. At
the back was a fence, and with all speed he climbed up and let himself

down on the other side. Then he ran around a corner of a barn, through
another alleyway, and into a street leading home.
The shoe dealer might have followed, but he suddenly remembered that
he had left the store unprotected and that somebody might come in and
run off with his stock and his money. So he went back in a hurry; and
the chase came