THE RESULTS OF SNOWBALLING
Carl Rudder had not expected this telling blow and he was so dazed it
was several seconds before he turned over in the snow and arose to his
feet.
"Good for you, Snap!" cried Will. "That's the way to serve him."
"Wha--what do you mean by hitting me like that?" demanded Dudder,
glaring at Charley, but still keeping a safe distance.
"What do you mean by hitting me?" demanded Snap.
"I'll punch your head good for you!
"Try it--if you dare," answered Snap, defiantly, and he took an
aggressive step forward, at which Dudder retreated.
"I'll fight you another time--when you haven't so many friends
around," said Carl Dudder lamely, and then turning on his heel he
started away, followed by one of his cronies.
"If old Mammy Shrader is hurt, you'll be to blame," called Snap after
him.
"He's a coward," was Giant's comment. "I wish I had got a whack at
him. He is much larger than I am, but I am not afraid of him."
While this scene was transpiring Shep and Whopper had helped old Mammy
Shrader to a seat on the porch of a house not far from where she had
gone down. The old woman complained of a pain in her side and it was
next to impossible for her to take another step.
"I'll have to go home," she panted. "But how am I to get there?"
"Here comes Mr. Sell in his grocery wagon," cried Whopper. "Perhaps
he'll give you a ride."
"Maybe he will--I buy my things from him," answered the old woman.
The grocer was stopped and the situation explained, and he readily
volunteered to take Mammy Shrader to her home, located at no great
distance. He and the boys helped her into the wagon.
"The boy who struck her ought to be horsewhipped," said the grocer.
"Fun is one thing, but hitting an old woman is quite another."
"Just what I say," answered Shep.
"Well, I knocked him down anyway," said Snap, coming up, and Giant
told the details of the brief encounter.
Snap volunteered to go with the grocer, and between them they soon had
Mammy Shrader at her home and lying on a couch. Shep hurried home and
told his father the particulars of what had occurred.
"I will drive over and see her," said the doctor, and as his horse was
hitched up he went immediately.
"She is suffering from a sprain and from the jar," said the physician,
after an examination. "She must take it easy for a week or so." Then a
neighbor, who had dropped in, said she would look after the patient
during that time.
"Carl Dudder ought to be made to pay for this," said Doctor Reed.
"The Dudders won't pay anything--Mr. Dudder is as miserly as they make
him, even if he is well off," said Whopper.
"Perhaps he can be forced to pay," replied Snap.
When Carl Dudder heard that a doctor had been called in to attend
Mammy Shrader he was much frightened. He went to consult Ham Spink
about it. The two were hand-in-glove in everything.
"Are they sure you threw the snowball?" asked Ham Spink, pointedly.
"They say they saw me."
"Who says so?"
"Oh, Snap Dodge and that crowd."
"Always that crowd!" muttered Ham Spink.
"They say they know you knocked Andrew Felps down," went on Dudder,
finding some consolation in the fact that Ham was in difficulties too.
"They didn't see a thing!" roared the dudish youth.
"Well, that is what they say."
"Humph! Carl, they are bound to get us into trouble."
"Of course. They haven't got over last summer's trouble yet. I suppose
they will make it as hot for us as they can."
"Well, let us stick together and maybe we can face them down," was Ham
Spink's comment, and then he lit a cigarette and offered one to his
crony, and both fell to smoking.
That very evening both youths had to "face the music," and in a manner
which did not please them in the least.
Coming home just before supper Mr. Spink, found a note awaiting him.
It was from Andrew Felps and ran, in part, as follows:
"I have a complaint to make against your son Hamilton. To-day while I
was on my way through the streets of our town I was assailed in the
fashion of a ruffian by your son, who threw snowballs at me, knocking
me down and ruining my silk hat and a rare volume of history I was
carrying. I demand that your son apologize to me for his actions or I
shall make a complaint to the authorities."
"Hamilton, what does this mean?" demanded Mr. Spink, after perusing
the communication several times.
"I don't know," answered the undutiful offspring brazenly.
"Did you snowball Mr. Felps?"
"No. I didn't snowball anybody."
"He says you did."
"He must be mistaken."
"It is mighty queer," muttered Mr. Spink. "I will look into this
to-morrow."
"The old Harry take Felps anyway," muttered Ham to himself. "How did
he learn I threw that snowball? That Dodge crowd must have told him."
It was Mammy Shrader's neighbor, Samuel O'Brien, who called upon Mr.
Dudder.
"Sure, Mr. Dodder, yer son ought to be locked up, so he ought," said
the Irishman. "It's him as is wantin' to kill old Mammy Shrader."
"Why, what do you mean, sir?" demanded Mr. Dudder, in amazement.
"Sure an' wasn't it Carl as knocked the old lady down to-day and laid
her on a sick bed, wid a doctor, an' me wife to nurse her till she
gits betther? Sure it's a bastly shame, so it is, an' Carl will go
to the lock-up onless ye pay all the bills."
"I do not understand you."
"Thin I'll be after explainin'," answered Samuel O'Brien, and gave his
story in full, to which Mr. Dudder listened in a nervous fashion. Then
Carl was called into the room.
"What do you mean by making trouble in this fashion?" demanded Mr.
Dudder wrathfully.
"I didn't make trouble," said Carl, sullenly.
"Sure an' he did that," said the Irishman.
"Mr. O'Brien says you knocked Mrs. Shrader down."
"I didn't."
"He was seen--several b'ys saw him," put in Samuel O'Brien.
"I--er--it was an accident," stammered Carl, quailing before the stern
gaze of his parent. "The--er--the snowball slipped. It didn't hit
Mammy Shrader hard, and she fell down of her own account, not because
of the snowball."
"She says th' snowball knocked her down," said Samuel O'Brien. "If ye
was my b'y I'd be afther givin' ye a good walloppin', so I would!" he
added pointedly.
"I will go and see Mrs. Shrader," said Mr. Dudder. "Carl, you remain
at home until I get back."
"Can't I go over and see Ham?"
"No."
"I promised him that I would be over."
"Well, you can't go. You study your lessons, unless you prefer to go
with me to Mrs. Shrader's."
"I don't want to go to her house," said Carl.
Mr. Dudder lost no time in paying Mammy Shrader a visit, and then he
called on Doctor Reed. When he came home again he was very angry.
"Carl, I have a good mind to punish you severely," he said. "I did not
think you would treat a woman as Mrs. Shrader has been treated. I
shall have to pay her doctor's bill and also something more--at least
fifteen or twenty dollars." Mr. Dudder sighed at the thought of
parting with so much cash. "I shall take the amount out of your
spending money, and out of the money I was going to give you for
Christmas."
"Can't I have the five dollars you promised me for Christmas?" gasped
Carl.
"Not a cent of it."
"Oh, you're a mean thing!" burst out Carl, and ran from the room
before his father could stop him.