Page:Fairview Boys and their Rivals.djvu/86

82 "Hurrah!"

"Good for Bob!"

Cheers greeted the brave boy as he slid down one side of the swing and landed safely on the ground. Then he ran his fastest. There was no need of hurry, he found, as he halted outside of range of the bull. The animal had got a wrench that tamed it down a good deal.

Bob saw that the loop was tight as could be about the neck of the bull. The more the bull tugged, the tighter it became. The boy started out on a new run, and waved his hand at the peering faces at the schoolhouse window.

"I'm going to tell Farmer Doane," he shouted.

Bob came back in a quarter of an hour with the farmer. Mr. Doane brought a leather muzzle and a leading rope, and soon had the bull under mastery.

Bob felt pleased and proud as he walked into the schoolroom. The girls were looking at him with beaming eyes. Tom Chubb could not help giving him a hearty slap on the shoulder. Miss Williams smiled at him in a grateful way.

It took some time for the school to quiet down. Before studies were taken up, a little scrap of folded paper passed from hand to hand till it reached Bob. When he opened it, he read:

""You are a reel heero, Bob Bouncer."

At recess the little fellows crowded about Bob as if he was a hero, indeed, and the girls said all kinds of nice things about him.

Bob still had in mind the trouble about the stolen spelling