But the hat was blown very hard by the wind, which didn’t seem to want to let go of it. Once the hat was nearly blown under a big, heavy wagon, and the wheels almost rolled over it. Then, a little later, some horses almost stepped on it, and one horse thought it was something good to eat, and was going to chew it, only his driver wouldn’t let him.
And then, all of a sudden, along came a trolley car, and this nearly ran over the hat, only the motorman stopped his car in time. He even got off, and tried to grab the hat, but the wind blew it on farther still, for the breeze was very strong.
“Oh, hadn’t we better go back home?” asked Mary, when they had been chasing the hat for some time. “We might get lost.”
“We’re lost now,” spoke Johnny, as he looked around, though he didn’t stop running. “We’ve never been in this part of the city before.”
“Well, if we’re lost we can’t get any more lost than we are,” said Mary. “We might as well keep on, and try to get the hat for the old gentleman. I like him, as he looks so much like the kind fisherman.”
“All right,” agreed Tommy and Johnny, for they also liked the old gentleman. So on they ran, after the old man who was chasing his hat.
Once the hat blew into the canal, and got all wet, and the next minute it blew out and went almost under the wheels of a choo-choo locomotive, but it rolled away just in time.
And then, all of a sudden, the wind gave a big puff, as if it was blowing out a candle, and presto-chango! the hat blew up into a tree, and there it stuck.
“Well, it’s fast, anyhow,” said the old man, who had almost no breath left, after running so far.
“Yes, it can’t go any more, unless the tree blows with it,” spoke Johnny.