away at a great rate. Not but that an
interruption or two did occur. They fell in with a flock of geese, and
Hugh did not much like their appearance, never having heard a goose make
a noise before. He had eaten roast goose, and he had seen geese in the
feathers at the poulterers'; but he had never seen them alive, and
stretching their necks at passengers. He flinched at the first moment.
Dale, who never imagined that a boy who was not afraid of his
school-fellows could be afraid of geese, luckily mistook the movement,
and said, "Ay, get a switch,--a bunch of furze will do, and we will be
rid of the noisy things."

He drove them away, and Hugh had now learned, for ever, how much noise
geese can make, and how little they are to be feared.

They soon came upon some creatures which were larger and stronger, and
with which Hugh was no better acquainted. Some cows were grazing, or had
been grazing, till a party of boys came up. They were now restless,
moving uneasily about, so that Dale himself hesitated for a moment which
way to go. Lamb was near,--the passionate boy, who was nobody's friend,
and who was therefore seldom at play with others. He was also something
of a coward, as any one might know from his frequent bullying. He and
Holt happened to be together at this time; and it was their appearance
of fright at the restless cows which frightened Hugh. One cow at last
began to trot towards them at a pretty good rate. Lamb ran off to the
right, and the two little boys after him, though Dale pulled at Hugh's
hand to make him stand still; as Dale chose to do himself. He pulled in
vain--Hugh burst away, and off went the three boys, over the hillocks
and through the furze, the cow trotting at some distance behind. They
did not pause till Lamb had led them off the heath into a deep lane,
different from the one by which they had come. The cow stopped at a
patch of green grass, just at the entrance of the hollow way; and the
runners therefore could take breath.

"Now we are here," said Lamb, "I will show you a nice place,--a place
where we can get something nice. How thirsty I am!"

"And so am I," declared Holt, smacking his dry tongue. Hugh's mouth was
very dry too, between the run and the fright.

"Well, then, come along with me, and I will show you," said Lamb.

Hugh thought they ought not to go farther from the heath: but Lamb said
they would get back by another way,--through a gate belonging to a
friend of his. They co