n't be long," whispered Bobby, clutching at Betty and
holding her into the seat. "Let Tommy Tucker be. If that fellow trips
him----"

The next instant Tommy did trip. Without any doubt the well shod foot of
the man lolling in the seat slid into the aisle as the boy with the
snowfall approached, and Tommy pitched over it with almost a certainty of
falling headlong. Indeed, he would have gone to the floor of the car had
he not let go of the mass of snow in his hands and clutched at the seat
arms.

"Whoo!" burst out Teddy Tucker in delight. "Now that fresh kid's got his!"

For the soft snowball in Tommy's hands landed plump upon the
handkerchief-covered crown of the person sprawling so ungracefully in the
Pullman seat! The victim uttered a howl audible above the drumming of the
car wheels. And he leaped upright between the seats of his section, beat
the fast-melting snow off his head and face, and displayed the latter to
the young peoples' amazement as that of a very stern looking gentleman
indeed with a bald head and gray side whiskers.

"Oh, my aunt's cat and all her kittens!" gasped Bob Henderson. "Now Tommy
has done it! See who it is, Ted?"

Teddy Tucker was as pale as the snow his brother had brought in from
outside and which now showered about the victim of the ill-timed jest.

"Ma--Major Pater! From Salsette! He has an artificial leg, and that's why
it was sticking out in the aisle whenever he nodded off. Oh,
Jimminy-beeswax! what's going to become of Tommy?"

CHAPTER X

BEAUTIFUL SNOW

The girls had heard the boys who attended Salsette Academy mention that
martinet, Major Pater. Although his infirmity--or injury--precluded his
having anything to do with the drilling of the pupils of the academy, in
the schoolroom he was the most stern of all the instructors at Salsette.

"Oh, poor Tommy!" gasped Betty, wringing her hands.

"Served him right," declared Louise. "He should not have played that
trick. A lame man, too!"

"Oh, Louise!" exclaimed her sister Bobby, "Tommy didn't know it was an
artificial limb he was stumbling over."

"And I'm sure I didn't know it was his old peg-leg I tripped on twice,"
declared Teddy Tucker in high dudgeon. "What did he want to go to sleep
for, spraddled all over the aisle?"

He said this in a very low voice, however; and be kept well behind Bob and
the girls. As for Timothy Derby and Libbie Littell they actually never
heard a word of all this! They sat side by s