t his pet dog be bitten, caught up a stone and
threw it at the place. His aim was pretty good, but instead of scaring
away the snake, or driving back Snap, the fall of the stone only made
Snap more eager to see what was there that his friends did not want him
to get.

With a loud bark he rushed on, and the children, turning to look, saw
something long and black, and seemingly wiggling, come toward them.

"Oh, the snake! The snake!" cried Nan.

"Run! Run!" shouted Grace.

"Come on!" exclaimed Nellie Parks, in loud tones.

"Freddie! Freddie!" called Flossie, afraid lest her little brother be
bitten.

Snap rushed at the black thing so fiercely that he turned a somersault
down the hill, and rolled over and over. But he did not mind this, and
in an instant was up again. Once more he rushed at the black object,
but the children did not watch to see what happened, for they were
running away as fast as they could.

Then Freddie, anxious as to what would become of Snap if he fought a
snake, looked back. He saw a strange sight. The dog had in his mouth
the long, black thing, and was running with it toward the Bobbseys and
their friends.

"Oh, Nan! Nan! Look! Look!" cried Freddie. "Snap has the snake!
He's bringing it to us!"

"Oh, he mustn't do that!" shouted Nan. "It may bite him or us."

"Run! Run faster!" shrieked Grace.

But even though it was down hill the children could not run as fast as
Snap, and he soon caught up to them. Running on a little way ahead he
dropped the black thing. But instead of wiggling or trying to bite, it
was I very still.

"It--it's dead," said Nan. "Snap has killed it."

Freddie was braver now. He went closer.

"Why--why!" he exclaimed. "It isn't a snake at all! It's only an old
black root of a tree, all twisted up like a snake! Look, Nan--Flossie!"

Taking courage, the girls went up to look. Snap stood over it, wagging
his tail as proudly as though he had captured a real snake. As Freddie
had said, it was only a tree root.

"But it did look a lot like a snake in the grass," said the little
fellow.

"It must have," agreed Nan. "It looked like one even when Snap had it.
But I'm glad it wasn't."

"So am I," spoke Grace, and Nellie made like remark.

Snap frisked about, barking as though to ask praise for what he had
done.

"He is a good dog," observed Freddie, hearing which the animal almost
wagged his tail off. "And if it had been a real snake he'd ha