Bobby Blake on the School Nine; Or, The Champions of the Monatook Lake League

by Frank A. Warner

  CHAPTER III

  THE COMING STORM

  For several minutes the boys were the least bit quiet and subdued. Thereis always something sobering in going away from home and leavingrelatives and friends behind, especially when the parting is going tolast for many months, and the warm-hearted farewells of the group at thestation were still ringing in the boy's ears.

  But it is not in boy nature to remain quiet long, and theirirrepressible spirits soon asserted themselves and caused the youngtravelers to bubble over with fun and merriment.

  Besides, Pee Wee and Mouser had said good-bye to their parents the daybefore in their own homes, and had been stopping over night with theirschool chums in Clinton. Their depression was but for the moment and wasover the thought of leaving behind so much fun and good will as they hadfound at their chums' home town, and they helped Bobby and Fred toforget their feeling of homesickness.

  There were not many other passengers on the train that morning, so thatthe boys had plenty of room and could give vent to their feelingswithout causing annoyance to others. They snatched each other's caps andthrew them in the aisles or under the seats, indulged in good-naturedscuffling, sang bits of the Rockledge songs and cut up "high jinks"generally.

  Fred and Mouser were seized by a longing for a drink of water at thesame moment, and they had a race to see who would get to the coolerfirst. Fred won and got first drink while Mouser waited for his turn.But Mouser got even by knocking Fred's elbow so that half the water wasspilled over the front of his coat.

  "Quit, I tell you, Mouser," remonstrated Fred, half choking from theeffort to drink and talk at the same time.

  But Mouser kept on, until suddenly Fred saw a chance to get back at him.

  "What does it say there?" he asked, pointing to some words engraved onthe lower part of the cooler. "I can't quite make the letters out fromhere."

  Mouser innocently bent over, and Fred, taking advantage of his stoopingposition, tipped his glass and sent a stream of water down his victim'sneck.

  There was a startled howl from Mouser as the cold water trickled downhis spine. He straightened up with a jerk and chased Fred down theaisle, while Bobby and Pee Wee went into whoops of laughter at hisdiscomfiture.

  "That's no way to drink water, Mouser," chaffed Bobby as soon as hecould speak. "You want to use your mouth instead of taking in throughthe pores."

  "Oh, dry up," ejaculated Mouser, making frantic efforts to stuff hishandkerchief down his back.

  "We're dry enough already," chuckled Pee Wee. "Seems to me it's you thatneeds drying up."

  "You will jog my elbow, eh?" jeered Fred, who was delighted at thesuccess of his stratagem.

  "My turn will come," grunted Mouser. "It's a long worm that has noturning," he added, getting mixed up in his proverbs.

  Again the boys shouted and Mouser himself, although he tried to keep uphis dignity, ended by joining in the merriment.

  In the scramble for seats when they had first boarded the train, Bobbyand Fred had had the luck to get the seat that faced forward. Mouser andPee Wee had to ride backward and naturally after a while they objected.

  "You fellows have all the best of it," grumbled Pee Wee.

  "That's all right," retorted Fred. "That's as it should be. Nothing'stoo good for Bobby and me. The best people ought to have the best ofeverything."

  "Sure thing," Bobby backed him up. "The common people ought to besatisfied with what they can get. You fellows ought to be glad that welet you travel with us at all."

  "Those fellows just hate themselves, don't they?" Mouser appealed to hisseat mate.

  "Aren't they the modest little flowers?" agreed Pee Wee.

  "What do you say to rushing them and firing them out?" suggested Mouser.

  "Oh, don't do that," cried Fred in mock alarm. "Pee Wee might fall onone of us, and then there'd be nothing left but a grease spot."

  "Might as well have a ton of brick on top of you," confirmed Bobby.

  "I'll tell you what," grinned Pee Wee. "We'll draw straws for it and thefellows that get the two longest straws get the best seats."

  "That would be all right and I'd be glad to do it," said Fred with anair of candor. "Only there aren't any straws handy. So we'll have to letthings stay as they are."

  "You don't get out of it that way, you old fox," cried Mouser. "Here'san old letter and we'll make strips of paper take the place of thestraws."

  "All right," agreed Fred, driven into the open. "Give me the letter andI'll make the strips and you fellows can draw."

  "Will you play fair?" asked Mouser suspiciously.

  Fred put on an air of offended virtue.

  "Do you think I'm a crook?" he asked.

  "I don't know," retorted Mouser in a most unflattering way. "A fellowthat will pour water down my back when I'm trying to do him a favor willdo anything."

  Fred looked at him sadly as though lamenting his lack of faith, butproceeded briskly to tear the strips. The boys drew and Bobby had theluck to retain his seat, but Fred had to exchange with Mouser.

  "It's a shame to have to sit with Pee Wee," said Fred as he squeezed inbeside the fat boy. "He takes up two-thirds of the seat."

  "The conductor ought to charge him double fare," grinned Mouser.

  Pee Wee only smiled lazily.

  "Look at him," jeered Bobby. "He looks just like the cat that'sswallowed the canary."

  "It would take more than that to make Pee Wee happy," put in Fred. "Acanary would be a mighty slim meal for him."

  "You'd think so if you'd seen how he piled into the buckwheat cakes thismorning," chuckled Bobby. "Honestly, fellows, I thought that Meena wouldhave heart failure trying to cook them fast enough."

  "I noticed that you did your part all right," laughed Pee Wee. "I hadall I could do to get my share of the maple syrup."

  "Buckwheats and maple syrup!" groaned Mouser. "Say, fellows! stoptalking about them or you'll make me so hungry I'll have to bite thewoodwork."

  "We can do better than that," said Fred. "Here comes the train boy.Let's get some candy and peanuts."

  The boys bought lavishly and munched away contentedly.

  "Look at the way the snow's coming down!" exclaimed Fred, gazing out ofthe window.

  "It is for a fact," agreed Bobby.

  "Looks as though it had settled in for a regular storm," commentedMouser.

  "Maybe it will be a blizzard," suggested Pee Wee.

  As a matter of fact, it appeared to be that already. The snow wasfalling heavily and shutting out the view so that the boys couldscarcely see the telegraph poles at the side of the track. A fierce windwas blowing, and in many places the fence rails were almost coveredwhere the snow had drifted.

  "Hope we won't have any trouble in getting to Rockledge," remarked Fredrather apprehensively.

  "Not so bad as that I guess," said Bobby. "There's one place though, alittle further on, where the track runs through a gulch and that may bepretty well filled up if the storm keeps on."

  "I wonder if there's anything to eat on the train if we should getsnowbound," ventured Pee Wee.

  "Trust Pee Wee to think of his stomach the first thing," gibed Fred.

  "There isn't any dining car on the train," said Mouser. "And we're stilla good way from the station where it usually stops for lunch."

  "We're all right anyway as long as the candy and peanuts hold out,"laughed Bobby.

  "Yes," mourned Pee Wee, "but there isn't much nourishment in them when afellow's really hungry."

  The storm continued without abatement, and the few passengers that goton at the way stations looked like so many polar bears as they shook theclinging flakes from their clothes and shoes.

  "Oh well, what do we care," concluded Pee Wee, settling back in hisseat. "There's no use borrowing trouble. It always comes soon enough ifit comes at all."

  "We ought to be used to snow by this time," remarked Mouser. "After whatwe went through up in the Big Woods this d
oesn't seem anything at all."

  "Listen to the north pole explorer," mocked Fred. "You'd think, to hearhim talk, that he'd been up with Cook or Peary."

  "Well, I've got it all over those fellows in one way," maintainedMouser. "I'll bet they never had a snowslide come down and cover theshack they were living in."

  "That was a close shave all right," said Bobby a little soberly, as hethought of what had been almost a tragedy during their recent holiday atSnowtop Camp. "I thought once we were never going to get out of thatscrape alive."

  "It was almost as bad when we were chased by the bear," put in Fred. "Wedid some good little running that day all right. I thought my breathwould never come back."

  "And the running wouldn't have done us any good if it hadn't been forgood old Don," added Mouser. "How that old dog did stand up to thebear."

  "He got some fierce old digs from the bear's claws while he was doingit," said Bobby.

  "He got over them all right," affirmed Mouser. "I got a letter from myuncle a couple of days ago, and he says that Don is as good as he everwas."

  The train for some time past had been going more and more slowly.Suddenly it came to a halt, although there was no station in sight. Itbacked up for perhaps three hundred feet, put on all steam and againrushed forward only to come to an abrupt stop with a jerk that almostthrew the boys out of their seats.

  They looked at each other in consternation.