And the children went on to the round pond which was in the centre of the meadow. Here they found that the bank near the water was very muddy and slippery, trodden into puddles too by the feet of the cattle, and Dina began to pull off her shoes and stockings.
"Well, as you're doing that I need not," said Gerald; "I hate making myself in a mess. You can go down the bank just as well by yourself, and launch both the boats, and give me the string of mine while I stay up on the grass."
Geraldine assented to this. She was too well accustomed to her brother's selfishness to take much notice unless he was unkind as well. So now she stepped, with little bare white feet, into the spongy mud, handed Gerald the string of his boat, and presently both children had forgotten everything but their small boats.
Suddenly they heard a shout behind them. "Look out! The bull! The bull!"
They both started and glanced round, and there was Farmer Donn's great black bull rushing towards them across the grass. He had torn up the paling of the smaller field in which he had been shut up, and thus gained an entrance into the home meadow.
Running at full speed after the bull, and brandishing a pitchfork, came Farmer Donn's cattle-man, and while he ran, he shouted, "Run, children! Run! Run for your lives!"
And, knowing that they were running for their lives, away went the twins, like leaves driven by a gale; away, as with winged feet, towards the gate, while thundering after them and gaining at every stride, galloped Nero, Farmer Donn's fierce black bull.
"It's no good!" gasped Gerald after a minute or two of hard running. "I can't keep this up. I'm just done."
Geraldine snatched at his hand. She was both stronger and fleeter than her brother, and her little bare feet trod lightly and swiftly over the wet grass.
"Hold up another minute, Gerry!" she panted. "We'll be at the gate by that time." But as she spoke, she glanced over her shoulder, and shuddered to see that the bull was close behind—almost upon them.