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 principal!"

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

WHETHER Danny Rugg was afraid the principal had seen him trying to
force a fight on Bert, or whether the unexpected fall that came to him,
caused it, no one knew, but certainly, for the next few days, Danny let
Bert alone. When he passed him he scowled, or shook his fist, or
muttered something about "getting even," but this was all.

Perhaps it was the thought of what Bert had seen fall from Danny's
pocket that made the bully less anxious to keep up the quarrel. At any
rate, Bert was left alone and he was glad of it. He was not afraid,
but he liked peace.

The school days went on, and the classes settled down to their work for
the long Winter term. And the thought of the snow and ice that would
comparatively soon be with them, made the Bobbsey twins rejoice.

"Charley Mason and I are going to make a dandy big bob this year," said
Bert one day. "It's going to carry ten fellows."

"And no girls?" asked Nan with a smile. She was walking along behind
her brother, with Grace and Nellie.

"Sure, we'll let you girls ride once in a while," said Charley, as he
caught up to his chum. "But you can't steer."

"I steered a bob once," said Grace, who was quite athletic for her age.
"It was Danny Rugg's, too."

"Pooh! His is a little one alongside the one Charley and I are going
to make!" exclaimed Bert. "Ours will be hard to steer, and it's going
to have a gong on it to tell folks to get out of the way."

"That's right," agreed Charley. "And we'd better start it right away,
Bert. It may soon snow."

"It doesn't feel so now," spoke Nan. "It is very warm. It feels more
like ice cream cones."

"And if you'll come with me I'll treat you all to