"Be careful not to accuse anyone wrongly," cautioned his mother.

Bert put the b.u.t.ton carefully away, and the party guests were soon eating their ice cream, and discussing the disappearance of the freezer and the finding of it by the boys. Then with the playing of more games, and the singing of songs, the affair came to a close, and good-nights were said.

"We've had a lovely time!" said the boys and girls to Flossie and Freddie, as they left.

"Glad you did--come again," invited the small Bobbsey twins.

Even Snap seemed to have enjoyed himself. And when the house was settling down to quietness for the night, and when Dinah and Mrs.

Bobbsey were picking up the dishes, the circus dog marched around like a soldier, with a stick for a gun, and one of the fancy caps, that came in the "surprise" packets, on his head.

When Bert went to bed that night he laid the b.u.t.ton found in the ice cream where he would be sure to see it in the morning.

"I'm going to find out whose coat that came off of," he said to himself.

The little Bobbsey twins slept late the next morning, and so did Nan, but Bert was up early.

"I'm going over to the barn, and see if I can tell by looking around it, how many were at our freezer," he said.

But there was nothing there to help him in his search. Some old boxes, placed in a sort of circle, showed where the ones who had taken the ice cream, had rested to eat it.

"They must have had spoons with them," said Bert to himself, as he looked about. "That shows they came all prepared to take our ice cream. So they must have known it was going to be here. Well, I'll see whose coat has a b.u.t.ton missing."

It took Bert some days to look carefully at the coats of the various boys in school, who might have been guilty of taking the cream.

For a time he had no luck, and then, one afternoon, as he noticed Danny Rugg wearing a coat he seldom had on, Bert walked slowly up to him, clasping the b.u.t.ton, with his hand, in his pocket.

His heart beast fast as he noticed that from the middle of Danny's coat a b.u.t.ton was gone. And a glance at the others showed Bert that they were just like the one found in the ice cream freezer.

"I see you've lost a b.u.t.ton, Danny," said Bert, slowly.

"Hey?" exclaimed the bully, with a start.

"I see you've lost a b.u.t.ton," repeated Bert.

"Yes, I guess it dropped off. Maybe it's home somewhere," said Danny.

"No, it isn't--it's here!" exclaimed Bert, suddenly holding the b.u.t.ton out to him.

CHAPTER XV

THANKSGIVING

For a moment Danny Rugg just stared at Bert. Then the bully swallowed a sort of lump that came in his throat, and said:

"That isn't my b.u.t.ton."

"Isn't it?" asked Bert, politely. "Why, it just matches the others on your coat, and it's got a few threads in the holes, and there are some threads in your coat, just where the b.u.t.ton was pulled off. I guess it's your b.u.t.ton, all right, Danny."

Danny did not say anything. He looked from the b.u.t.ton to Bert, and then at the s.p.a.ce on his coat where a b.u.t.ton should have been, but where one was missing.

"Well--well," he stammered. "Maybe it is off my coat, but--but how did you get it, Bert Bobbsey?"

"I found it," was the answer. "Don't you want it back?"

He held it out to Danny, who took it slowly.

"Well," went on Bert, with a queer little smile at his enemy, "why don't you ask me _where_ I found it, Danny?"

"Huh! I don't care where you found it. I s'pose you picked it up around the school yard, where I lost it, playing tag with the fellows."

"No, you didn't lose it there," went on Bert, still smiling. "You have another guess coming, Danny."

"Pooh! I don't care where you found it," and Danny was about to turn away.

"Wait a minute," said Bert. "Suppose I say that this b.u.t.ton was found in our freezer of ice cream, that you and some other boys took off our stoop the night of Flossie's and Freddie's party, Danny?

What about that?"

"It isn't--I didn't--you can't prove anything about me, Bert Bobbsey, and if you go around telling that I took your ice cream, I--I---"

But Danny did not know what else to say. He was confused and his face was white and red by turns, for he realized that Bert had good proof of what he said.

"Better go slow," advised Bert, calmly. "I don't intend to go around telling what you did. I just want to let you know that I am sure you took our ice cream."

"I--I---" began Danny. "You're only trying to fool me!" he exclaimed.

"That b.u.t.ton wasn't in it at all!"

"Wasn't it?" asked Bert, quietly. "Well, you just ask Charley Mason, or any of the fellows who were at the party, what we found in the freezer, and see what they say."

Danny had nothing to reply to this. Thrusting the b.u.t.ton in his pocket he walked off. Bert was sure he had found the boy who had taken the ice cream.

Later, from a boy who had been friends with Danny for some time, but whose father, afterward, decided that his son was getting into bad company, and made him cease playing with the school bully, Bert learned that Danny had planned to take the ice cream freezer off the porch.

He and several boys did this, carrying it to the old barn. They had provided themselves with large spoons, and were having a good time, eating the cream, when they heard the approach of Bert and his friends, and fled, leaving the cream behind.

It was during a dispute as to who should have the right to first dip into the freezer that Danny and a boy named Jake Harkness had a struggle, and in this Danny lost a b.u.t.ton which fell into the ice cream without anyone knowing it. The coat Danny wore that night he did not put on again for some time, but when he did Bert saw the missing b.u.t.ton.

Danny knew that he had been found out, and for a time he had little to say. But Bert was boy enough not to be able to keep altogether quiet over his discovery. From time to time he would ask Danny:

"Lost any more b.u.t.tons, lately?"

"You let me alone!" Danny would reply, surlily.

Of course this made talk, the boys wanting to know what it meant, and at last the story came out. This made Danny so angry that he picked several quarrels with Bert. On his part Bert tried to avoid them, but at last he could stand it no longer, and he and Danny came to blows again, Danny striking first.

Bert had been brought up with the idea that fighting, unless it could absolutely be avoided, was not gentlemanly, but in this case he could not get out of it.