“Oh, Grandpa! Grandpa! Grandpa!” called Janet, as loudly as she could. “Teddy’s running away with the calf—I mean the calf is running away with Teddy! Oh, do something! What shall I do? Oh, dear!”
But Grandpa Martin did not hear the little Curlytop girl. He was too far away. Teddy, too, was shouting, but his sister could not hear what he said, as he was too far off. And, as he was farther away from his grandfather than was Jan, of course the farmer could not hear the little boy either.
“Oh, what shall I do?” Janet asked again, and she was almost ready to cry for fear her brother would be hurt. Though he was older than was she, still she felt she must look after him almost as much as she took care of Trouble—when Trouble let her.
“What’s the matter?” asked a voice behind Janet, and, turning, she saw Hal Chester, who had come up so quietly she had not heard him.
“Oh, Hal!” cried Janet, “Ted’s on the calf’s back and he can’t get off, and I don’t know how to stop him and I can’t make grandpa hear and—and—— Oh, dear!”
“My! that’s a lot of trouble!” said Hal. “I’ll see if I can help. Where’s the calf and where’s your grandfather?”
“There’s the calf,” and Janet pointed to where it was racing around, its tail held high in the air. “And grandpa is going to the cherry grove, I guess.”
“Well, I think maybe I can stop the calf without going after him, especially as it’s so far, and my foot doesn’t feel very well to-day,” said the lame boy. “Here he comes now,” he went on, as he saw the calf with Ted on its back swing around a corner of the pasture and head toward Janet where she still stood on the fence.
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
“When he comes near enough I’ll stand in front of him, jump up and down and swing my hat. I saw a man do that once to stop a runaway horse and it worked fine. I guess it’ll be the same with a runaway calf.”