attention to the dog, dragging him along over the slippery snow.
"There you go!" cried Mr. Addison, and with that he shoved Sammy down into the big snowdrift.
"There!" muttered the hermit, with a hard smile on his wrinkled face. "Now I guess them boys won't find out my secret!"
And he walked away into the woods, the dog barking after him.
As for the Fairview boys, they were more frightened than hurt. True, they had been pushed down some distance, but they fell into a soft bank of snow, and, except that it got down their necks, and up their sleeves, as well as into their boots, they were in no danger. It was like falling into a feather bed.
"Whew! What happened?" gasped Bob, floundering about.
"I guess we happened—or it happened to us!" said Frank. "Where's Sammy?"
"Here I am," cried that small hero. "He pushed me, too."
"Say, he ought to be arrested!" exclaimed Bob, angrily, as he flopped about in the snow. "What did he do it for?"
"Said we were following him," answered Frank, as he wiped the snow out of his face.
"Well, I guess we were, all right," admitted Sammy. "But he had no right to be so mean."
"Where did he go?" Frank wanted to know.
"I—I didn't stop to look," admitted Sammy. "It all happened too quick for me."
"Same here," laughed Bob. "Now I wonder if we can get out of here?"
It was not as easy as it seemed at first, for the little valley into which the boys had been pushed by the angry hermit was filled with snow, and they sank in it above their waists.
