Fairview Boys and their Rivals/Chapter 8
CHAPTER VIII
THE MAD BULL
"News from the North Pole!" shouted Dick Hazelton, bounding into the playground, two mornings later.
"What does that mean?" asked Bob.
"Frost."
"When—where?"
"On the pumpkins! You fellows who live in town don't get up early enough to see what's going on these crisp, bright days. Get ready for some new fun, fellows."
"What's doing?" asked Frank.
"Nutting."
"Hurrah!" cheered Sammy.
"Walnuts down in the flats, and hickory nuts over in the North Woods," said Dick. "See here, Frank, can't we get the fellows to go Saturday?"
"Of course we can," replied Frank.
"My crowd will go," put in Jed Burr.
"Thank you!" laughed Frank, slyly.
"Say, what will I do?" asked Tom. "I'm too fat to climb trees."
"You can hold the bag," chuckled Sammy.
Bob looked at Jed, and then at Tom. Then he walked away to another part of the playground.
"Hi, Bob!" sang out Sammy, running after him. "Where are you bound for?"
"Nowhere."
"What's the matter with you, anyway, the last day or two?"
"Nothing."
"Yes, there is."
"I'm sort of feeling cross, that's all."
Sammy fell back with a rather glum face, and Bob walked about alone. He was not feeling cross at all, although he thought he was. He was thinking.
Bob had felt for two days that he was in disgrace. Miss Williams showed no change in her manner towards him before the scholars, but he did not feel as free and friendly with her as of old.
Bob had worried some, but he had no hard feelings against anybody. He knew that he was not to blame about the stolen spelling list. One thing troubled Bob greatly, however; he believed that Tom Chubb had taken the list from the teacher's desk.
That was the very first thought that had come into Bob's mind when Miss Williams spoke of the list. Bob hated to think that Tom could do a mean trick. Something he remembered, however, helped to turn his mind in that way.
Ever since Tom had come to school, he had told a lot of stories of the ways down at Springville Academy. The boys there had taught him a good many tricks, as they called them.
Tom said it was quite usual for the fellows to have key books and carry notes with them, when they were trying for a new grade. What was worse, the fat boy did not seem to see much wrong in these acts.
So Bob had jumped at once to the conclusion that Tom had stolen the spelling list out of Miss Williams' desk.
"Didn't he have every word right?" Bob asked himself. "How could it come in his desk, or rather my desk, which he was using, unless he put it in there?"
Only guessing this, however. Bob was not willing to give the teacher the clew. Besides that, he would not betray a friend. He felt sorry for Tom, and he did not believe he could trust or like him as he had done.
All this Bob had carried in his mind for two days. He did not tell Frank or Sammy about it, but he did not feel very good over the way he was being suspected by the teacher.
"If Tom did take the list," thought Bob, "and they fasten it on him, he will certainly be expelled. That would be pretty bad for his folks, for he didn't seem to have been a very bright scholar before."
Just now, Bob had some new thoughts about the affair. He had put some facts together that had not at first come to his mind. He remembered that Jed Burr had not been at school the day of the spelling test. He remembered, too, that two of Jed's chums had come out better than they ever had before in the spelling.
Putting this and that together. Bob wondered if it could be possible that Jed had tried to "get even" by getting him into new trouble, just as he had when the bottle of ink in the storeroom was found broken.
If Jed had done this, he must have done it after school, when the teacher and all the scholars were away, and forgetting that Tom was just then using Bob's desk.
"I won't speak to Tom about it, not just yet, anyway," decided Bob. "If he didn't do it, he will feel bad at my thinking he did. If he was bad enough to do it, he will deny it, of course. It's some days before the school board meets. I'll just keep quiet, and see how things turn out. I'll keep a sharp eye, too, on Jed Burr and his friends."
Bob was in a better frame of mind by the time the school bell rang. He crossed the playground slowly. Most of the scholars had got into the building. Just coming through the gate, and hurrying along as fast as they could, were Minnie Grey and little crippled Benny Lane.
Minnie had hold of Benny's arm and was urging him along. The little fellow was using his mended crutch the best he knew how. Minnie wore a red winter cape, for the mornings were beginning to get quite chill. She was hurrying so fast that this fell from her shoulders. She did not stop to pick it up. Instead, she acted as if too frightened to do anything but run and make Benny keep up with her.
"Why," cried Bob, suddenly, "that bull is chasing them!"
Just then Bob caught sight of the animal. It came rushing down the road Minnie and Benny had just left. The bull was roaring, its head down, its tail lashing the air.
"Hurry! hurry!" shouted Bob.
He ran towards the gate as fast as he could. As he got between it and the two children, the bull lowered its horns.
There was a post midway in the gate space. The animal could not get through without getting this out of the way. Bob saw the bull make a great rush. Its big horns struck the post, and snapped it off near the ground as if it were a mere pipe-stem.
Bob cast a quick glance at the two children. They were still fully fifty feet from the schoolhouse. Minnie was about dragging Benny along, who had begun to cry in terror.
"It's Farmer Doane's big bull, the one he always keeps shut up," said Bob. "They say he's very ugly. He gored and killed two pigs last week. He must have broken out. It's that red cape that roused him up."
Bob made a run for the spot where the cape lay on the ground. He snatched it up just in time. The bull with a great bellow was making a rush after the two children.
"I'll have to do some dodging," thought Bob, "but I've 
He Made a Bee-line for the Schoolhouse
got to keep him away till Minnie and Benny get into the schoolhouse."
What Bob tried to do now was to get the attention of the animal away from the children. He gave the red cape a fling right into the face of the animal. It fell at one side. The bull eyed it and made a dash for it.
"Good! they're safe!" cried Bob, as he saw Minnie and Benny pass through the open doorway of the schoolhouse. They fairly fell over the threshold in their wild haste and fear.
The bull drove its head down at the cape. Then the animal stamped it to fragments in the soft sod. Then with a frightful bellow it started for Bob.
"It's a run, and a fast one," thought Bob.
He made a straight bee-line for the schoolhouse, not daring to risk looking behind him. He could hear the great thudding hoofs of the pursuing bull strike the ground hard and fast.
The animal snorted, and once Bob almost fancied he could feel its hot breath sweep the back of his neck. At any rate, it was an eager race.
"I've made it!" cried the lad, breathless and excited, as he bounded over the threshold of the schoolhouse door.
As he did so he knocked over Frank and Sammy, crowding towards it to see what was going on. Bob had just a glimpse of crowding, frightened boys and girls.
"Shut the door!" he yelled, and got to his feet to help two of the scholars to give it a quick slam.
Bob shot the bolt just in time. The door shook violently the next moment, as the heavy body of the bull grazed it.
"What is it?" asked Miss Williams, hurrying from her desk.
"It's a mad bull," said Sammy.
"Are the children all in?" asked the teacher, anxiously.
"They're all right, Miss Williams," replied Bob.
Just then a frightful scream came from the side of the room.
Crash! went the lower half of a window, sending splinters of wood and glass half way across the floor.
The terrified scholars crowded to the other end of the room, as the bull, with a fierce roar and blood-shot eyes, stuck its head through the ruined window.