“Banana-kind!” cried Amos and Ann, as well as they could for laughter.
“Don’t be too quick. Don’t be Grape-kind,” said the Journeying Man.
“Grape-kind?” they echoed.
“And jump out of your skins,” said J. M.
At that Amos and Ann laughed so hard that they had to sit down on the ground. But all at once a clock began to strike fast and furiously. It had struck a hundred before the children could scramble to their feet.
“Oh, how late it is!” they cried. “Take us home, J. M.!”
It surely was late when they started home,
But they took the trail with a laugh,
Little Ann clinging to Amos’s coat,
And Amos to J. M.’s staff.
And through the meadows and over the hills,
Happily up and down,
With hurry and scurry and skip and hop,
And talking in verse the live-long time,
(For they’d got in the habit and couldn’t stop,)
They traveled the scallopy road of Rhyme,
The wandering road of much renown
That leads from Zodiac Town.
They traveled on till they came in sight
Of a couple of windows shining bright.
Then J. M. stopped and held up his stick.
“Yonder’s your house,” he said. “Be quick!
I’ll count very slowly, but you must be
As far as the gate by twenty-three;
And when I have counted twenty-four
You must be inside the door.”