The Bobbsey Twins on a Houseboat | Page 7

him what to do, Snap ran straight for
the lumber team. Leaping up in front of them, and barking as loudly as
he could, Snap turned the trotting horses to one side. And just in time,
too, for, a little more, and one of the front wheels of the heavily loaded
lumber wagon would have run over the bicycle in which Freddie was
still entangled.
"Bow wow!" barked Snap. The horses were perhaps afraid of being
bitten, though Snap was very gentle. At any rate, they turned aside, and
would have run on faster, only Snap, leaping up, grabbed the dangling
reins in his teeth and pulled hard on them. "Whoa!" called Bert. When
the horses heard this, and felt the tug on the lines, they knew it meant to
stop. And stop they did. Snap had saved Freddie.
CHAPTER III
DINAH'S UPSET
"What's the matter? What has happened?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, who
had run out to the front porch, upon hearing the excited cries, and the
exclamations of fat Dinah, the cook. "Oh! has anything happened to
any of the children?"
"Yes'm, I s'pects there has, ma'am," said Dinah. "Pore li'l Freddie am
done smashed all up flatter'n a pancake, Mrs. Bobbsey!"

"Freddie--Oh!"
"He's all right!" shouted Bert, who had, by this time, reached his little
brother, and was lifting him out of the bicycle. "Not hurt a bit, are you,
Freddie?"
"N--no, I--I guess not," said Freddie, a bit doubtfully. "I--I'm scared,
though."
"Nothing to be frightened at now, Freddie," said Bert, holding up the
little chap, so his mother could see him.
"Why, Freddie isn't hurt, Dinah," said Mrs. Bobbsey, in great relief.
"What made you think so?"
"Well, I seed him all tangled up in dat two-wheeled velocipede ob
Bert's, an' de hoss team was comin' right down on de honey-lamb. I
thought shuah he was gwine t' be squashed flatter'n a pancake. But he
ain't! Bless mah soul he ain't! Oh, dere's mah cake burnin'!" and into
the kitchen ran Dinah, glad, indeed, that nothing had happened worse
than the scare Freddie received.
"Good Snap! Good old dog!" said Nan, as she patted his head.
"Bow wow!" barked Snap. He still held the horse reins in his strong
white teeth. He was not going to let the horses go yet.
"Oh, Freddie!" cried Mrs. Bobbsey, when she understood what had
happened. "What danger you were in! Why did you take Bert's wheel?"
"I--I wanted a ride, Mamma. I didn't think I'd fall off, or that the team
would come."
"You must never do it again," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "Never get on Bert's
wheel again, unless he is with you to hold you. You are, too small, yet,
for a bicycle."
"Yes'm," said Freddie in a low voice.

"But where is the driver of the wagon?" went on Mrs. Bobbsey, looking
at the empty seat.
"Maybe he fell off," suggested Nan, who had taken Freddie from Bert,
the latter picking up his wheel, and looking to see if it had been
damaged by the fall. But it was all right.
"Here comes a driver now," said Flossie, who saw one of the men from
her father's lumber yard hurrying along the road.
"Is anybody hurt?" the man asked, as he came up, running and
breathing fast, for he had come a long way.
"No one, I think," answered Mrs. Bobbsey. "But my little boy had a
very narrow escape."
"I am sorry," said the driver. "I left the team standing out in front of the
lumber yard, while I went in the office to find out where I was to
deliver the planks. When I came out the horses were trotting away. I
guess they were scared by something. I ran fast, but I could not catch
them."
"Snap caught them for you," said the twins' mother, as she looked at the
former circus dog, who was still holding the horse-reins.
"Yes, he's a good dog," the lumber wagon driver said. "I was afraid,
when I saw how far the horses had gone, that they might do some
damage. But I'm glad no one was hurt."
"I think we all are glad," spoke Mrs. Bobbsey. "It was partly my little
boy's own fault, for he should not have gotten on his brother's bicycle.
But he won't do it again."
"No, I never will!" promised Freddie, as he rubbed his leg where it had
been bruised a little from becoming tangled up in the wire spokes.
Snap barked and wagged his tail, as the driver took the lines from him,
and then, when the man drove off with the horses and the load of

lumber, Mrs. Bobbsey went with the twins back into the yard.
"Well, I'm glad all the excitement is over," she said. "Where were you,
Nan? Grace