“‘I dare,’ said Mary Lamb. ‘Anyway, if I don’t dare, I’ll go if you’ll all go with me.’
“The nine agreed to go; so they climbed back over the fence and they turned down the road that led to Mr. Cross’s home.
“Mr. Cross was sitting on the back piazza and when he saw the ten little girls coming round the corner of the house a big smile spread over his face.
“‘Well, well, well!’ he said. ‘Have you all come to call on me? Let’s see—ten of you! Well, well, I’ll have to get some chairs, won’t I?’
“Mary Lamb, with a very scared face, said that they could not stay to sit down, and then she told about the sheep and how they had run away.
“The smile on Mr. Cross’s face had been growing bigger and bigger, until now it broke into a funny, chuckling laugh that made Mr. Cross shake all over.
“‘Well, well!’ he ejaculated. ‘So the whole flock jumped over the wall, did they? Well, I can’t blame ’em much. Why, when I was a boy, if I had seen ten little girls coming to get acquainted with me, I’d have jumped over a stone wall myself. Ho, ho, ho!’ And Mr. Cross laughed and laughed, until the ten little girls would have laughed, too, only they could not quite, they were so scared.
“‘We’re so sorry!’ said Mary Lamb.
“‘Yes, we’re so sorry!’ said the nine others.
“‘It was all my fault,’ confessed Mary Fox bravely. ‘And, oh! do you suppose they are lost forever ’n’ ever?’