[And run home is what Winkie and Blunk did.]
Of course they did not know the farmer had gone after his dog, but the woodchuck children knew they had been in danger; and where there is danger once for an animal, there may be danger a second time.
“Come on, Winkie!” said Blunk in a low voice, as the footsteps of the farmer died away in the distance. “Let’s run!”
“Do you want to play tag any more?” asked Winkie, astonished.
“Tag? No, indeed!” exclaimed her brother. “All I want to do is to get home. And you’d better come with me. It’s a good thing Blinkie didn’t come, for if there were three of us that man might more easily have seen one of us. Come on now—let’s run!”
[And run home is what Winkie and Blunk did.] They ran as fast as when they had been playing tag. But this was no joyful race; it was a race full of danger. For there was no telling when the farmer might shoot his gun again, or when he might return with his dog.
Though Winkie and Blunk felt pretty safe as they ran through the deep clover, they also felt their little hearts beating very fast as they neared their burrow, or underground house.
“My goodness!” exclaimed Blinkie, in woodchuck talk, as her brother and sister came leaping up to the front door. “What’s your hurry on such a hot day?”
“Hurry?” gasped Blunk. “I guess you’d be in a hurry if you’d seen and heard what happened to us! Wouldn’t she, Winkie?”