The strange voice belonged to a high-school boy, Stanley Reeves, and
both Tim and Charlie knew he was a member of the gymnasium wrestling
team and quite capable of stopping any small-boy fight.
"You're too old to fight a boy of that size, anyway," declared Stanley,
surveying Tim with disgust.
"But I'm going to punch him," announced Bobby heatedly.
"Oh, you are?" said Reeves with interest. "Go ahead, then, and I'll
sit here and keep an eye on this chicken to see that he doesn't pitch
in at the wrong moment"
Reeves took a firm hold on Charlie's coat collar and backed him off to
one side.
"Wash his face for him--it needs it," the high-school lad went on to
Bobby.
Like a small but angry bumble bee, Bobby flew at Tim. They clinched
and plunged head-long into the snow, where they pounded and wrestled
and grunted and gasped as all boys do when they are fighting a thing
out. Tim was not a fair fighter, nor a very brave one, and most of his
victories had been won over smaller boys or by using unfair methods.
Now with Stanley Reeves looking on, he did not dare cheat, and so Bobby
unexpectedly found himself, after perhaps five minutes of tussling,
sitting on Tim's chest, with Tim breathless and beaten.
"Wash his face," insisted Stanley, suddenly scooping up a handful of
snow and beginning to rub it thoroughly into Charlie's eyes and mouth.
CHAPTER XIII
THE TWINS HAVE A SECRET
Bobby seized a double handful of snow and began to give Tim the same
treatment.
"Quit!" yelled Tim in anguish. "Quit, I tell you, Bobby! Ow, now
you've cut my nose!"
A small twig in the snow had scratched poor Tim rather violently on his
small pug nose, but it was not cut.
"Say you've had enough," ordered Bobby, thumping about on the fallen
lad's chest like a particularly well-packed bale of hay. "Say you've
had enough!"
"Had enough," murmured Tim obediently.
Bobby got up at once, and Tim rose and shook himself. At the same
moment Stanley Reeves let go of Charlie. The two boys slouched off
without a word.
"Now that ought to last them for some time," said Stanley cheerfully.
"Any time you need any advice on training up Tim Roon in the way he
should go, you just apply to me, Bobby."
Bobby grinned, showing his even, white teeth, and said he would. Then
Stanley went on to join the other high-school boys who were
bob-sledding, and Bobby ran home to tell his family the result of his
chase.
That night it snowed again. Father Blossom said winter was a habit,
like anything else, and that after the weather made up its mind to send
one snow-storm it couldn't stop but had to send them right along.
"I want Dot to stay in the house to-day," said Mother Blossom, after
Meg and Bobby had started for school. "She coughed a good deal last
night and I think she'll have to keep out of the snow for a while."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account