“Don’t you get off, or you may get lost too.”
“All right.”
Tom stepped on the platform, and, quietly jumping from the cars, ran round the depot, to escape notice. The stop was a short one, and directly she heard the noise of the departing train. When it was fairly on the way, Tom began to look around her and consider her situation.
It was a small station, and there was scarcely a house near the depot. It was already twilight, and to Tom, who was accustomed to the crowded city, it appeared very lonely and desolate. She knew not where she should pass the night. She had often been in that position in the city, and it did not trouble her. Here, however, she was rather startled at the unwonted solitude. Besides, being wholly ignorant of the country, it occurred to her that she might meet some wild animal prowling around.
Just as this thought came into her mind, she saw advancing towards her a cow, followed by a farmer’s boy, about two years older than herself. Now Tom was brave enough constitutionally, but this was the first cow she had ever seen, and the branching horns led her to suppose it fierce and dangerous, like a lion, for example.
She rushed with headlong speed to a stone wall and climbed over.
“Ho! ho!” laughed the boy; “are you afraid of a cow?”
“Won’t she kill me?” asked Tom, a little reassured.
“She wouldn’t kill a fly. Didn’t you ever see a cow afore?”
“No, I didn’t,” said Tom. “I thought it was something like a lion.”