The shouting kept up, and the children could hear one of the men who worked on the farm calling:
“Look out! Look out! He’s loose! He’s running away!”
Ted stopped running and looked back at his sister and little brother.
“Oh, what is it?” asked Janet, her eyes big with wonder.
“I—I guess maybe the bull has got loose,” said Teddy. A few days before, a farmer who lived some miles away from the children’s grandfather had asked Mr. Martin if a bull, which the farmer had bought, could not be kept for a while in the barn on Cherry Farm. Mr. Martin had said it could be, and the animal, which was quite wild, had been shut up in a distant part of the stable, where he bellowed all day long.
“Oh, if it’s that bad bull,” said Janet, “we’d better go into the house and stay there.”
“Maybe it’s only one of the horses,” said Teddy, after thinking it over a bit, and listening to the calls of the man in the barnyard. “If it’s only a horse we don’t have to be scared.”
The truth was that Ted wanted to see what was going on, even if the bull had gotten loose, and he did not want to have to go back to the house with his sister and Trouble.
“Well, if it’s a horse I’m not afraid,” said Janet. “Let’s go on.”
“Could I have a ride on a horse?” asked Trouble.