Danny and Sam hurried out ahead of Bert, who walked more slowly. Since morning many things had happened, and Bert no longer felt as friendly toward Danny as he had before.
“Danny’s a whole lot meaner since he got so thick with Sam Todd,” said Bert to himself, as he walked out of the school. He could hear the two cronies talking together just ahead of him.
“Did you really lose your gold birthday ring, Dan?” asked Sam.
“Sure I did!” was the answer. “Dad’ll scold me, too, when he finds it out. I wish I could get it back.”
“Don’t you know where you lost it?” Sam wanted to know.
What Danny answered Bert could not hear, for by this time the two boys had run on ahead. They were making snowballs and throwing them.
“Trying to break more windows, I guess,” murmured Bert, as he passed the church and looked up at the hole in the beautiful stained-glass window. Then he saw a man’s head thrust out of the hole—for it was large enough for that, and Bert recognized the church sexton, Robert Shull. Mr. Shull was about to fasten a piece of plain glass over the hole in the colored window.
“Hello, Bert!” called Mr. Shull, for the Bobbseys attended this church and the sexton knew the twins.
“Hello!” Bert answered.
“I’ve got to mend this hole to keep out the snow until this window can be fixed with new stained glass,” the sexton said. “It’s going to cost quite a lot of money, too.”