CHAPTER III
THE MERRY-GO-ROUND
Nan, though several years older than Flossie, was at first as muchfrightened by the cry of "a snake!" as was her little sister. ThoughBert had often said only harmless snakes were in the woods aroundLakeport, Nan could not help jumping up with a scream and pullingFlossie toward her.
"What's the matter?" asked Freddie, who had taken his sandwich a littledistance away to eat.
"A snake! I saw a big snake!" cried Flossie again.
"Where is it?" asked Nan, for, as yet, she had caught no sight of anyserpent.
"I--I almost sat on it," explained Flossie, clinging to Nan, and lookingdown over her shoulder.
Nan glanced toward where her sister had been sitting just before thealarm. She saw no wiggling snake crawling over the ground.
"Are you sure, Flossie?" Nan asked. "Are you sure you saw a snake?"
"Course I did. He almost put his head in my lap."
"Maybe he was hungry and wanted your sandwich," suggested Freddie. As hespoke he stepped forward to look at the place Flossie had pointed to asbeing the spot where she had seen the snake. And no sooner did Freddietake a step than Flossie cried:
"There it is again! Oh, the snake! The snake! Don't let him get me,Nan!"
Nan, too, saw something round and black moving near the place whereFlossie had been sitting, and, fearing for the safety of her sister, theolder Bobbsey girl lifted Flossie in her arms.
But no snake glided across the brown pine needles, and there was nohissing sound nor any forked tongue playing rapidly in and out, as Nanhad once seen in a little snake Bert and Charlie Mason had caught.
"I don't believe there is a snake," Nan said, as Flossie slipped to theground. "If there was one it has gone away."
"I'll hit him with a stone!" cried Freddie, turning to look for a rock.And as he moved Flossie cried again:
"There it is! I saw it move! That black thing!"
This time she pointed so carefully that Nan, letting her eye followalong Flossie's finger, saw what the little girl meant. And Nan laughed.
"Why, that isn't a snake!" she cried. "It's only a crooked, black treebranch! It does look a little like a snake, but it isn't really one,Flossie."
"But what made it move?" the little girl asked.
"I think it was Freddie, though he didn't do it on purpose," went onNan. "Take another step, Freddie, as you did when you were looking for astone."
Freddie moved a little and then they all saw what it was that had causedFlossie's fright. A long, dead branch of a tree lay on the ground. Thelarger end of it was close to where Flossie had been sitting with Nan,and this end did look somewhat like a snake, with a mouth and eyes. Themiddle of the stick was covered with pine needles, and the lower endstuck out beyond the needles and dried leaves close to where Freddiestood.
When the little boy took a step his foot touched the thin end of thebranch, and made the thick end, near Flossie, move. Flossie took thisfor the swaying of a snake's head, and so she had screamed in fright.
"There's your snake--only a tree branch!" laughed Nan, as she lifted thedead limb and held it up.
"Ho! Ho!" laughed Freddie.
"Was that it--for sure?" asked Flossie.
"Of course!" answered Nan. "Come sit down and finish your sandwich. Thenwe'll play until it's time to eat our regular lunch."
"Well, I'm glad it wasn't a real snake," sighed Flossie, as she took herplace with her sister beneath the tree.
"If it had been a real snake I'd 'a' pegged a rock at it!" boastedFreddie.
This was not the only fright at the picnic, for a little girl aboutFlossie's age cried when she saw a big frog in a pool, and a little boyran screaming to his mother because a grasshopper perched on hisshoulder.
But things like these always happen at picnics, and when the littlefrights were over even the children themselves laughed at theirshort-lived terror.
After the ball game Bert and Nan took the smaller Bobbsey twins for arow in a boat. Everything went well except that Freddie, in trying tosail his tiny ship over the side of the rowboat, nearly fell in himself.But Bert caught him just in time and pulled him back.
Then it was time for lunch, and what a good time all the children had,sitting at tables in the little rustic houses, or on the ground, eatingfrom boxes and baskets. The Bobbsey twins, with a group of theirfriends, sat in a little pavilion by themselves.
Besides the lunch which each child or group of children brought, therewas to be ice cream and cake, given by the Sunday school. The bigfreezers had been arranged in a sort of shed, and the cake and creamtreat was to be given after the picnic lunches had been eaten. Justbefore the time for this part of the program, Mr. and Mrs. Bobbseyarrived at the grounds, driving over in the auto, as they had promisedto do.
"Well, children, having fun?" asked the father of the Bobbsey twins.
"A dandy time!" exclaimed Bert. "My team won the ball game."
"And I 'most fell out of a boat!" boasted Freddie.
"Pooh! That's nothing! I 'most saw a snake!" exclaimed Flossie.
"A snake!" cried her mother.
"It wasn't real," Nan hastened to add, and Mrs. Bobbsey seemed tobreathe easier.
"Well, you have had some excitement as well as fun," observed Mr.Bobbsey.
"Excitement!" cried Bert. "Say, Daddy, you ought to have been there whenthe truck almost smashed through the bridge!"
"Oh, did that happen?" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey.
"No, but almost," Bert went on.
"Well, it seems to me that everything 'almost' happened," said Mrs.Bobbsey. "Flossie _almost_ saw a snake, Freddie _almost_ fell overboardand the truck _almost_ broke the bridge."
"Oh, the bridge really _is_ broken," Nan said. And she told about thataccident. Mr. and Mrs. Bobbsey had come to the picnic grounds by anotherroad, and so had not seen the bridge that sagged in the middle.
"Well, all's well that ends well, so they say," remarked Mr. Bobbsey,"and we're glad you are having a good time. Yes, Mr. Blake, what is it?"he asked, for Mr. Blake, had come to where Mr. Bobbsey was talking tothe children, and had called aloud.
"Do you want to help the ladies dish out the ice cream?" asked Mr.Blake.
"Surely!" answered the twins' father. "Wait until I take off my coat.Dishing out ice cream is rather messy work."
He removed his coat, hanging it on the limb of a tree near the shedwhere the ice cream freezers had been placed. Mrs. Bobbsey also offeredto help, and when it became known that it was time for the ice cream andcake treat the picnic children began gathering at the rustic shed.
Before the dainties could be served, however, there came from down theroad, in the opposite direction from the broken bridge, a low, rumblingsound.
"I hope it isn't going to rain," said Mrs. Morris, as she held a plateof ice cream in one hand.
"What makes you think it is?" Mrs. Bobbsey asked.
"Didn't you hear that thunder? I can't see the sky, on account of thetrees, but I'm afraid it's clouding over."
"No, the sun is shining," said the twins' mother.
"But I'm sure that is thunder," went on Mrs. Morris.
There was a rumbling sound down the road, and there seemed to be someexcitement there, for a number of children who had started toward theice cream pavilion turned back.
"I wonder what it is," mused Mrs. Bobbsey. "I hope no 'almost' accidentsare going to happen."
"I'll go see what it is," offered Bert.
He ran down the road, was gone a little while, and came back, his eyesshining with eagerness.
"Oh, it's a big merry-go-round!" he cried.
"A merry-go-round?" repeated his mother, busy at the ice cream.
"Yes, a man has a big merry-go-round in pieces on three or four bigwagons," Bert reported. "Something's the matter with the engine--it runsby a steam engine, and something's the matter!"
"Bert, go call your father," said Mrs. Bobbsey, for her husband had goneto the far side of the grove to get anothe
r ice cream tub from the truckon which they were brought to the picnic. "We don't want any strange mensetting up a merry-go-round here. Call your father!"