wards the alder bushes, "to reach the
place where we heard the cow--as we thought."

Here Hester choked over the egg, and Amy quickly took up the story: "And
we were halfway across a pasture lot when Hester, who was first, yelled
wildly and waved her arms. I looked up, 'cause I was watching where I
walked, the lot was pawed up into such hummocks, and saw Hester racing
for the low boughs of an apple-tree. Then I heard a thumping, and saw a
big bull charging across the meadow, making straight for us!"

Amy gasped and needed a drink of water, then Hester continued the tale:
"Oh, girls, it was thrilling! I managed to scramble up in the
apple-tree, and turned to see what had become of Amy. There she was,
sprinting like a Marathoner for the barbed-wire fence that enclosed the
lot. She back-trailed over to it, and up over it she went, just like a
swallow flies, but look at her stockings and skirt!"

Every one looked at Amy's apparel and sympathized with her, yet every
scout wished she had had such an exciting time.

"Now they can win a badge for story-telling, can't they, Verny?" said
Betty, glad for her two pals.

"And another one for mending," laughed Julie, vindictively.

"Poor Julie's awful sore about that mud," murmured Amy, winking an eye
at the others.

Every one laughed, but the Captain said: "Go on and finish the yarn."

"Well, I left Hester in the tree--safety first, you know--with the bull
standing under it, waiting for her, while I skirted the lot and reached
the house. When I told the old lady how we happened to be in such a fix,
she threw her gingham apron over her head and sat down on the doorstep
to laugh.

"I was beginning to feel offended, when she glanced up. She understood,
and said: 'Deary, that ole bull has to be helped to his stall every
night after a day in the pastoor. He oughter been butchered years an'
years ago, but you see he saved me from a wicked tramp one day, an'
father sayed Bill had earned his life-pension fer that. So Bill's safe
from the slaughter-house, but he sure is a nuisance these days. Why,
this mad run of his'n will keep him wheezin' fer a hull week. Now come
with me an' I'll show you how he's payin' the price fer actin' like a
three-year-old!"

"I followed the old lady to the fence, and there, sure enough! Bill was
sprawled out under the tree, puffing for breath, but poor Hester sat in
the branches wailing because she dared not come down while the bull was
making such a