It took Dick a little while to understand that he was expected to run
ahead now, not to follow, and indeed it is doubtful if he did
understand it, but a rabbit popping up ahead of them at that moment
drew him on, and Huldah more slowly followed. It was a very zig-zag
way that Dick took them, for he was intent on finding rabbits, not
houses, but, fortunately, it led them at last to a house, too.

The sun was going down in a crimson glory, and a mistiness was
creeping up over the land on all sides, when, to her great relief,
Huldah saw the welcome sight of smoke rising out of chimneys, then
other signs of life, and presently came to a farm standing in the
middle of a large yard. The yard seemed very full of animals, and
where there were no animals there were hay-ricks and corn, and empty
upturned carts and waggons.

It was a lonely-looking place in that evening light, and the
melancholy mooing of the cows, the good-night cluckings of the hens,
the bleating of the sheep, seemed to add to the desolateness.
As Huldah and Dick drew nearer, another and more terrifying sound
arose, and that was the barking of dogs. Dogs sprang up from
everywhere, or so it seemed to poor little Huldah, and, forgetting
the coming night, her hunger and everything else, she fled from the
place, shrieking to Dick to follow her.

Fortunately, Dick obeyed. Hunger and tiredness had taken most of his
spirit out of him, or he could never have resisted such an
opportunity for a fight; the enemy numbered six to one, too, not to
speak of the farmer, who was armed with a long whip, and two or three
workmen, who were well provided with sticks or pitchforks, and
hungry, footsore Dick did not at that moment feel equal to facing