fluttering and hissing, as half running, half flying, they
waddled faster towards home. John Jay did not look to see what direction
they were taking. He was sure they were after him. He could hear their
long wings flapping just behind him; at least, he thought he could, but
the noise he heard was the snapping of the twigs he trampled in his
headlong flight. No greyhound ever bounded through a wood with lighter
feet than those which carried him. His eyes were wide with fright. His
heart beat so hard in his throat he thought he would surely die before
he could reach the cabin. At every step the light seemed to be growing
dimmer and the thicket denser, although he thought he certainly must
have been running long enough to have reached the clearing. Still he ran
on, and on, and on. The recollection of one of Mammy's stories flashed
across his mind.

[Illustration: The ganders had chased him around]

Once a man had lost his way in this wood, and the ganders had chased him
around and around until daylight. The thought made him so weak in the
knees that he was ready to drop from fright and exhaustion. Then he
recalled a superstition that he had often heard, that anyone who has
lost his way may find it again by turning his pocket wrong side out. He
was twitching at his with trembling hands, looking with eyes too
frightened to see, and fumbling with fingers too stiff with fear to
feel, but the pocket seemed to have disappeared. "It's conju'ed too," he
wailed, as he ran heedlessly on.

Something long and white slapped across his face. An unearthly, wavering
voice sounded a hoarse, long-drawn "Moo-oo-oo!" just in front of him. He
sank down in a helpless little heap, blubbering and groaning aloud, with
his teeth chattering, and the tears running down his clammy face. There
was a louder crackling, and out of the bushes walked an old spotted cow,
calmly switching her white tail and looking at John Jay in gentle-eyed
wonder.

Strength came back to the boy with that familiar sight, but not being
sure that the cow was not as ghostly as the ganders, he scrambled to his
feet and started to run again. To avoid passing the cow, he turned in
another direction. This time, it happened to be the right one, and in a
few moments more he had dashed into the open. Then he saw that it was
not yet dark in the fields.

Mammy heard the sound of rapid running up the path, and came to the
door. John Jay dropped at her feet, trembling and cold, and