"Hooray!" shouted Mollie, jumping to her feet with relief. At the
unexpected sound the sheep in the road started and looked about them
uneasily. "Come on, girls, I'm mad enough to attack Jem single-handed. All
who are with me, say Aye."

"Aye!" they yelled, scurrying about to find sticks and stones.

Betty, flourishing a branch at the frightened flock, yelled: "We are wild,
wild women, old sheep. You had better get out while the going's good. We
eat little fellers like you alive!" and with a whoop of wild spirits she
danced down to the edge of the wood waving her stick wildly about her
head.

Her fun was contagious and, smothering their laughter, the girls waltzed
after her, throwing sticks and stones and all sorts of improvised weapons
into the midst of the now thoroughly frightened flock.

Mrs. Irving strove to caution them, but her voice was lost in the babble,
and for once in her life at least she found herself utterly ignored. With
a little sigh she picked up a stick of her own and followed after the
girls.

For a moment it looked as though the panic stricken sheep would rush
straight for the shouting girls, and in that moment what was little more
than an exciting game to the girls might have turned into a rather
dreadful tragedy.

But, luckily, half a dozen sheep broke through and, led by an old ram,
started down the road and the rest of the flock, as is the habit of sheep,