They stopped and turned. A shout was certainly sent after them from the gate they had quitted—"Girls, hollo!—Sunday-School girls, hollo!"
"Do you hear?" said Matilda.
"Sunday-School girls!—come back!"
"What can they want?" said Maria.
"We must go see," said Matilda.
So they went towards the gate again. By the gate they could soon see the shock head of Alexander; he had got rid of the wash-tub and his mother and his sister—all three; and he was waiting there to speak to them. The girls hurried up again till they confronted his grinning face on the other side of the gate.
"What do you want?" said Maria. "What do you call us back for?"
"I didn't call you," said the boy.
"Yes, you did; you called us back; and we have come back all this way. What do you want to say?"
Alexander's face was dull, even in his triumph. No sparkle or gleam of mischief prepared the girls for his next speech.