"Only an owl, Mr. Bobbsey! Yas, I reckon as how it is; but I don't like t' heah it jest de same."
"You don't? Why not, Sam?"
"'Cause as how dey most always ginnerally bring bad luck. I don't like de sound ob dat owl's singin' no how!"
"He wasn't singing, Sam!" laughed Bert, after he had called to the rest of the family inside the tent and told them the cause of the noise.
"Ha! Am dat yo', Bert?" asked the colored man. "Well, maybe an owl don't sing like a canary bird, but dey makes a moanful soun', an' I don't like it. It means bad luck, dat's what it means! An' you all'd better git t' bed!"
"Oh, I'm not afraid, Sam. We thought it was Snoop mewing, or Snap howling, maybe. You didn't see anything of our lost dog, did you?"
"Not a smitch. An' I suah would like t' hab him back."
"Ask him if he or Dinah saw Snoop," called Flossie.
Bert asked the colored man this, but Sam had seen nothing of the pet cat either.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Freddie. "Both our pets gone—Snap and Snoop! I wish they'd come back."