Sam took all the packages he could carry, and hurried with them to the stoop. But he had not gone very far before something happened. From behind him rushed a big dog, barking and leaping about, glad, probably, to be home again from part of the summer vacation. "Look out, Sam!" called Bert Bobbsey, who was carrying the valise his mother had had. "Look out!" "What's de mattah? Am I droppin' suffin?" asked Sam, trying to turn about and look at all the bundles and packages he had in his arms and hands. "It's Snap!" cried Nan, who was sitting comfortably on the shady porch. "Look out for him, Sam." "Snap! Behave yourself!" ordered little fat Flossie, as she set down a wooden cage containing a black cat. "Be good, Snap!" "Here, Snap! Snap! Come here!" called Freddie. Snap, the big dog, was too excited just then to mind. With another loud, joyous bark he rushed up behind Sam, and, as the colored man of all work about the Bobbsey place had very bow, or curved, legs, Snap ran right between them. That is, he ran half way, and then, as he was a pretty fat dog, he stuck there. "Good land ob massy!" exclaimed Sam, as he looked down to see the dog half way between his bow legs, Snap's head sticking out one way, and his wagging tail the other. "Get out ob dat, Snap!" cried Sam. "Get out! Move on, sah!" "Bow wow!" barked Snap, which might have meant almost anything. "Look out!" shouted Sam. "Yo'll upset me! Dat's what you will!" And indeed it did seem as though this might happen. For Sam was so laden down with packages that he could not balance himself very well, and had almost toppled over. "Here, Snap!" called Bert, who was laughing so hard that he could hardly stand up, for really it was a funny sight. "Don't call him, Bert," advised Mrs. Bobbsey. "If you do he'll run out, and then Sam surely will be knocked over. And there are some fresh eggs in one of those packages he took from Dinah." Snap himself did not seem to know what to do. There he was, tightly held fast, his fat sides between Sam's bow legs. Snap could go neither forward nor backward just then. He barked and wagged his tail, for he knew it was all in fun. "Open your legs wider, Sam, man!" exclaimed his wife. "Den de dorg kin git out!" Sam, holding tightly to the packages, did manage to stoop down and so spread his legs a little farther apart. This released Snap, who, with a happy bark, and a wild wagging of his tail, bounded up on the stoop where Nan sat. A little later the whole Bobbsey family, with the exception of Mr. Bobbsey, were sitting comfortably in the porch chairs, while Sam was opening the front shutters, having already unlocked the front door for the returning family. "Home again!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, with a little sigh, as she looked around at the familiar scenes. "My, but how dusty it is after being on the lovely water." "Yes'm, dey shuah has been lots ob dust!" exclaimed Sam. "We need rain mighty bad, an' I've had de garden hose goin' ebery night, too."