“In the old hen-house! We can go in there and lock ourselves in. Come on!”
She pointed to an old and rather ramshackle sort of building that had been used as a hen-house by Farmer Joel before he built a better one nearer the barn. This old hen-house was down near the bank of the brook, and the children had often played in it. Now it seemed just the refuge they needed.
“The old bull can knock that house down!” said Laddie. “It’s almost falling, anyhow.”
“It’s better than nothing,” Russ declared. “And there isn’t any fence to hide behind. Come on to the hen-house, everybody!”
Behind them came the bellowing bull. They could hear him “roaring,” as Mun Bun called it, and, as he looked back over his shoulder, Russ saw the powerful animal splashing his way across the brook.
“He’s surely coming after us!” the boy thought. He had hoped that perhaps the bull might wander off somewhere else.
“Oh! Oh!” screamed Margy. “He’ll hook us!”
I do not really believe the bull at first had any notion of running after the children. He had merely gotten out of his pasture and was wandering about when Laddie saw him. He came to the brook to get a drink.
Then, after splashing into the water and quenching his thirst, he saw the six little Bunkers and actually ran toward them. But they had a good start and hastened toward the hen-house.
With a bellow the bull took after them, his tail out stiff in the air, his head down and his hoofs making the dirt fly. There were, perhaps, more reasons than one why the bull chased the children. He might have thought they had salt to give him, for often Farmer Joel and his men gave this dainty to the bull and the cows in the fields. Or the bull may have been just playful. Or perhaps his temper was just ugly. It is hard to tell sometimes the difference between playfulness and temper. Bulls are strong and like to show off their strength, sometimes butting their heads against a fence just for fun, it seems.