down over her shoulder.

Nan glanced toward where her sister had been sitting just before the
alarm. She saw no wiggling snake crawling over the ground.

"Are you sure, Flossie?" Nan asked. "Are you sure you saw a snake?"

"Course I did. He almost put his head in my lap."

"Maybe he was hungry and wanted your sandwich," suggested Freddie. As he
spoke he stepped forward to look at the place Flossie had pointed to as
being the spot where she had seen the snake. And no sooner did Freddie
take a step than Flossie cried:

"There it is again! Oh, the snake! The snake! Don't let him get me,
Nan!"

Nan, too, saw something round and black moving near the place where
Flossie had been sitting, and, fearing for the safety of her sister, the
older Bobbsey girl lifted Flossie in her arms.

But no snake glided across the brown pine needles, and there was no
hissing sound nor any forked tongue playing rapidly in and out, as Nan
had once seen in a little snake Bert and Charlie Mason had caught.

"I don't believe there is a snake," Nan said, as Flossie slipped to the
ground. "If there was one it has gone away."

"I'll hit him with a stone!" cried Freddie, turning to look for a rock.
And as he moved Flossie cried again: