Page:Bobbsey Twins on a Houseboat.djvu/245

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WHAT BERT SAW
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he dozed off, and he was just on the point of falling asleep, when he heard a noise. It was a squeaking sound, as though a door had been opened.

"Or," thought Bert, "it might be the squeak of a mouse. I wonder if Harry heard it?"

He wanted to call out, in a whisper, and ask his cousin in the dining-room, just beyond the passage. Bert could not see Harry. But Bert thought if he called, even in a whisper, he might scare the rat, or whoever, or whatever, it was, that had caused the mystery.

So Bert kept quiet and watched. The squeaking noise of the loose boards in the floor went on, and then Bert heard a sound, as though soft footsteps were coming toward him. He wanted to jump up and yell, but he kept still.

Then, suddenly, Bert saw something.

Standing in the dining-room door, looking at him, was a boy, about his own age—a boy dresed in ragged clothes, and in bare feet, and in his hand this boy held a piece of bread, and a slice of cake.

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