However, first we were to have an adventure.
As we trotted slowly up the market road, for the children all wanted to talk, we saw Guardie and Girlie and the pigs coming down from the sawmill. They were getting home earlier than usual.
Dallas was beginning to shout to them when the animals, who were by this time abreast of the Widow Detover's, made a sudden and peculiar stop. I knew that something had alarmed them.
Then Guardie, after a word to Sir Vet, dashed into the Widow's lane and strange to say he was followed by Girlie.
"Well! I vow," exclaimed Cassowary, "that's something not in my notebook. Big Chief, did you ever see both dogs leave their pigs before and in the middle of the road too?"
"Never!" said Big Chief. "Get on, Attaboy—there's something wrong at the Widow's."
CHAPTER XXVIII THE FIRE AT WIDOW DETOVER'S
Being two lengths ahead of Attaboy, I didn't propose to let him catch up to me, so I was the first pony to land my rider at the Widow's back door, where the two dogs had disappeared.