CHAPTER IX
THE NUTTING PARTY
The schoolroom was in an uproar. Some of the smaller scholars were crying. Miss Williams looked quite pale.
"Be quiet, children," she said.
"Oh, that cow will come in here and eat us all up!" blubbered one little girl.
"Do not think of going outside," said the teacher to Bob and Frank, who went towards the door, while Jed and his crowd made sure they were safe at the other end of the room.
"We ought to get word to Farmer Doane," said Bob.
"You must not risk going out," insisted Miss Williams.
"The bull may go away," spoke Sammy.
"He doesn't act like it," replied Bob. They watched the animal from the window. The bull did not move away from the building. He walked around it twice, rooted up some vines, kicked the door-step loose, and looked in at the window.
"We are in a state of siege," said the teacher, "but there is no danger while we remain indoors."
This did not, however, quiet the scholars. Nobody thought of sitting down, and study and order seemed out of the question.
"Can't we do something, Bob?" asked Frank.
"I'm trying to think if we can."
"Say, I wouldn't like to tackle that animal," said Tom, in a scared way.
"Let's throw something out at him," suggested Sammy.
"I think I know how to fix things," said Bob, finally.
"How?" asked Frank.
"The bull keeps well on this side of the schoolhouse."
"Just now he does, yes."
"Well, you come over to the other side and open a window."
"What for?"
"And let me out, and then shut the window quick."
"See here, Bob"
"You needn't worry. I may not do all I hope to, but the bull won't catch me."
"He will if he sees you."
"Not until I'm all safe and sound."
Frank knew that Bob was bold and brave, but not reckless. Something had to be done, so he went over to the window with Bob.
"You watch, and tell us if the bull starts away from that side of the house," Bob said to Sammy.
"All right."
Frank lifted the window quickly. Bob was outside before Miss Williams knew of it. As he started on a run, Sammy set up a great shout of warning.
The animal caught sight of Bob as he got past the end of the building, and started after him. Frank and the others, curious and breathless, watched Bob as he dashed across the playground.
"Oh, he'll be caught!" cried Minnie Grey, in affright.
"No, he won't," said Sammy. "I see what he's after."
"Oh, yes—the swing," guessed Frank.
Bob was too smart to think he could reach the fence before the bull could come up with him. About a hundred feet from the schoolhouse was a big swing. Two large dead trees formed the sides. Across their top was chained a big wooden log.
Two holes had been bored through the log. The rope, a thick heavy cable, was run through these, and knotted.
Bob reached the swing well ahead of the bull. He was a good climber. Spry and nimble, he was up one of the dead trees in a jiffy. The bull, headed for the swing, arrived under it as the boy got clear to the cross-piece, and sat astride of it.
The animal moved around the swing in a circle, glaring up at Bob and bellowing. The lad pulled one knotted end of the rope up and cut off the knot with his pocket-knife, then the other.
Now he made a stout slip-knot of one end. The other he tied around one of the side supports of the swing. He did not know much about lassoing animals, but the task Bob had set himself was a pretty easy one.
The bull kept moving around in a ring. Once in a while it would rush up against one of the trees and prod with its horns. Then it would glare up at Bob and roar fiercely.
"Now's my chance," said Bob, quickly, as the animal paced almost directly under the log piece on which the boy sat.
Bob did not fling the rope. He just dropped its looped end. He was well pleased, as without any tangle with the horns the loop fell right against the neck of the bull.
The instant the animal felt the rope it reared and shook its head. Then it started on a run. Bob clung close to the top beam of the swing, for he guessed what was coming.
The bull was going pell-mell. As the loop of the rope tightened, it came to a halt so sudden and terrific, that the animal was forced to its knees.
The swing shook and creaked, but Bob did not feel at all uneasy. The rope was strong and the sides were solid.
"Hurrah!"
"Good for Bob!"
Cheers greeted the brave boy as he slid down one side of the swing and landed safely on the ground. Then he ran his fastest. There was no need of hurry, he found, as he halted outside of range of the bull. The animal had got a wrench that tamed it down a good deal.
Bob saw that the loop was tight as could be about the neck of the bull. The more the bull tugged, the tighter it became. The boy started out on a new run, and waved his hand at the peering faces at the schoolhouse window.
"I'm going to tell Farmer Doane," he shouted.
Bob came back in a quarter of an hour with the farmer. Mr. Doane brought a leather muzzle and a leading rope, and soon had the bull under mastery.
Bob felt pleased and proud as he walked into the schoolroom. The girls were looking at him with beaming eyes. Tom Chubb could not help giving him a hearty slap on the shoulder. Miss Williams smiled at him in a grateful way.
It took some time for the school to quiet down. Before studies were taken up, a little scrap of folded paper passed from hand to hand till it reached Bob. When he opened it, he read:
"You are a reel heero, Bob Bouncer."Minnie,
"Benny."
At recess the little fellows crowded about Bob as if he was a hero, indeed, and the girls said all kinds of nice things about him.
Bob still had in mind the trouble about the stolen spelling list. He felt a good deal better now, however, than he had done before.
Miss Williams was kinder to him. Jed Burr was uglier than ever.
Everybody looked forward to Saturday with a good deal of pleasure and excitement. About a dozen of the boys were going with the nutting party. They were to meet at a cross-roads just south of the town.
Bob, Frank and Sammy were on hand bright and early, each provided with a good-sized feed bag and some lunch. Jed and his friends came upon the scene a little later.
Tom Chubb arrived panting and late. He went on to tell one of his wonderful stories about a dream he had about being in a cocoanut forest, and hated to wake up from it.
"I say, Tom," remarked Frank, "youVe brought no bag."
"Me? Guess not," replied Tom, smartly, sticking his hands in his pockets, and strutting around.
"Why didn't you?" asked Bob.
"Oh, I carried things for some fellows once," chuckled Tom, "and I don't do it again in a hurry."
The boys laughed heartily at this hint of the time when some chums at Springville Academy got Tom to carry a heavy chain several miles to tap a bee-tree that did not exist.
"Besides," added Tom, "I'm too fat to climb trees, so I'm no use except to have fun with."
The party trooped down the pleasant country road, joking, singing, and hailing every farmer they met. Dick Hazelton met them about half a mile out of town.
"Here's our guide," shouted Sammy.
"Yes," cried Dick, "and I'm going to lead you to the biggest raft of hickory nuts you ever laid your eyes on."
"Jolly!" shouted Sammy, waving his cap in glee.
"I went over to the flats this morning early," said Dick. "I tell you the nuts are prime for picking."
Jed and his crowd kept pretty well to themselves. As the crowd reached another cross-road they started down it.
"Hold on, there," shouted Dick.
"What for?" asked Jed.
"That's the wrong way."
"It's right enough for us," retorted Jed, smartly.
"This road is the shortest one to the flats."
Jed did not reply, but with his party swung off on the cross-road.
"They're up to something," said Frank.
"I wonder what it is?" asked Sammy.
"Something to spoil our fun, I'm sure," spoke Tom. "It's just like them."
"I think they're going to run for it when they get out of sight," said Dick. "They are aiming to make a cross cut and reach the flats first."
"Suppose they do?"
"Oh, they think they'll gather up all the nuts. Huh! there's a month's picking for ten schools."