Page:Arthur Stringer-The Loom of Destiny.djvu/96

The Loom of Destiny over his good luck. On several occasions, however, he had plainly and openly hinted that he should very much like Russell to take him and show him these three mysterious personages of his household, especially the French maid at meal-time, for he had somewhere heard that French people always ate live and wriggling frogs.

But this privilege was obviously impossible, as Russell's mamma had forbidden him to play with street boys, and once even had ordered the butler to chase Snapsie off the front steps.

Snapsie, thus outraged, wreaked a satisfactory but at the same time underhand revenge, by making a slide on the snowy asphalt, directly in front of Russell's house. Up and down this beautiful slide he careened for two boisterous hours, with much studied gusto and many a sign of delirious joy, knowing full well that Russell was watching him from the nursery window with tearful and covetous eyes.

But what seemed the most enviable and beautiful thing about Snapsie and his life was 84