"Yes there is," insisted Nan. "I can tell by your face. It's that Danny Rugg; I'm sure. Oh, Bert, is he bothering you again?"

"Well, he said he was going to."

"Then why don't you go straight and tell Mr. Tetlow? He'll make Danny behave. I'll go tell him myself!"

"Don't you dare, Nan!" cried Bert. "All the fellows would call me 'sissy,' if I let you do that. Never mind, I can look out for my self. I'm not afraid of Danny."

"Oh, Bert, I hope you don't get into a fight."

"I won't, Nan--if I can help it. At least I won't hit first, but if he hits me---"

Bert looked as though he knew what he would do in that case.

"Oh dear!" cried Nan, "aren't you boys just awful!"

However, she made up her mind that if Danny got too bad she would speak to the princ.i.p.al about him, whether her brother wanted her to or not.

"He won't know it," thought Nan.

She had no trouble in getting permission from her teacher for herself and her two friends to sit together, and soon they had moved their books and other things to one of the long desks that had room for three pupils.

Meanwhile Flossie and Freddie got along very well in the kindergarten.

At first, just as the others did, they gave very little attention to what the teacher wanted them to learn, but she was very patient, and soon all the cla.s.s was gathered about the sand table, in the little low chairs, making fairy cities, caves, and even make-believe seash.o.r.e places.

"This is like the one where we were this Summer," said Flossie, as she made a hole in her sand pile to take the place of the ocean.

"If I had water and a piece of wood I could show you where there was a shipwreck," she said to the girl next to her.

"That isn't the way it was," spoke Freddie, from the other side of the room. "There was more sand at the seash.o.r.e than on this whole table--yes, on ten tables like this."

"There was not!" cried Flossie.

"There was too!" insisted her brother.

"Children--children!" called the teacher. "You must not argue like that--ever--in school, or out of it. Now we will sing our work-song, and after that we will march with the flags," and she went to the piano to play. All the little ones liked this, and the dispute of Flossie and Freddie was soon forgotten.

Bert kept thinking of what might happen between himself and Danny Rugg when school was out, and when his teacher asked him what the Pilgrim Fathers did when they first came to settle in New England Bert looked up in surprise, and said:

"They fought."

"Fought!" exclaimed the teacher. "The book says they gave thanks."

"Well, I meant they fought the--er--the Indians," stammered Bert.

Poor Bert was thinking of what might take place between himself and the bully.

"Well, yes, they did fight the Indians," admitted the teacher, "but that wasn't what I was thinking of. I will ask you another question in history."

But I am not going to tire you with an account of what went on in the cla.s.srooms. There were mostly lessons there, such as you have yourselves, and I know you don't care to read about them.

Bert did not see Danny Rugg at the noon recess, when the Bobbsey twins and the other children went home for lunch. But when school was let out in the afternoon, and when Bert was talking to Charley Mason about a new way of making a kite, Danny Rugg, accompanied by several of his chums, walked up to Bert. It was in a field some distance from the school, and no houses were near.

"Now I've got you, Bert Bobbsey!" taunted Danny, as he advanced with doubled-up fists. "What did you want to squirt the hose on me that time for?"

"I told you it was an accident," said Bert quietly.

"And I say you did it on purpose. I said I'd get even with you, and now I'm going to."

"I don't want to fight, Danny," said Bert quietly.

"Huh! he's afraid!" sneered Jack Westly, one of Danny's friends.

"Yes, he's a coward!" taunted Danny.

"I'm not!" cried Bert stoutly.

"Then take that!" exclaimed Danny, and he gave Bert a push that nearly knocked him down. Bert put out a hand to save himself and struck Danny, not really meaning to.

"There! He hit you back!" cried one boy.

"Yes, go on in, now, Dan, and beat him!" said another

"Oh, I'll fix him now," boasted Danny, circling around Bert. Bert was carefully watching. He did not mean to let Danny get the best of him if he could help it, much as he did not like to fight.

Danny struck Bert on the chest, and Bert hit the bully on the cheek. Then Danny jumped forward swiftly and tried to give Bert a blow on the head. But Bert stepped to one side, and Danny slipped down to the ground.

As he did so a white box fell from his pocket. Bert knew what kind of a box it was, and what was in it, and he knew now, what had stained Danny's fingers so yellow, and what made his clothes have such a queer smell. For the box had in it cigarettes.

Danny saw where it had fallen, and picked it up quickly. Then he came running at Bert again, but a boy called:

"Look out! Here comes Mr. Tetlow, the princ.i.p.al!"

This was a signal for all the boys, even Bert, to run, for, though school was out, they still did not want to be caught at a fight by one of the teachers, or Mr. Tetlow.

"Anyhow, you knocked him down, Bert," said Charley Mason, as he ran on with Bert. "You beat!"

"He did not--I slipped," said Danny. "I can fight him, and I will, too, some day."

"I'm not afraid of you," answered Bert.

Mr. Tetlow did not appear to have seen the fight that amounted to so little. Perhaps he pretended not to.

CHAPTER IX

OFF TO THE WOODS