laden down with packages that he could not balance himself very well,
and had almost toppled over.

"Here, Snap!" called Bert, who was laughing so hard that he could
hardly stand up, for really it was a funny sight.

"Don't call him, Bert," advised Mrs. Bobbsey. "If you do he'll run
out, and then Sam surely will be knocked over. And there are some
fresh eggs in one of those packages he took from Dinah."

Snap himself did not seem to know what to do. There he was, tightly
held fast, his fat sides between Sam's bow legs. Snap could go neither
forward nor backward just then. He barked and wagged his tail, for he
knew it was all in fun.

"Open your legs wider, Sam, man!" exclaimed his wife. "Den de dorg kin
git out!"

Sam, holding tightly to the packages, did manage to stoop down and so
spread his legs a little farther apart. This released Snap, who, with
a happy bark, and a wild wagging of his tail, bounded up on the stoop
where Nan sat.

A little later the whole Bobbsey family, with the exception of Mr.
Bobbsey, were sitting comfortably in the porch chairs, while Sam was
opening the front shutters, having already unlocked the front door for
the returning family.

"Home again!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey, with a little sigh, as she
looked around at the familiar scenes. "My, but how dusty it is after