And so, loth to break their chaperon’s authority, the girls fidgeted and fumed, getting more impatient and hungrier with every leaden minute that dragged itself by until almost three-quarters of an hour had passed.

Then, when they began to think that they must scream if they were forced to wait another minute, their chaperon rose of her own accord and with a decided movement flicked the dust from her skirt.

“I think we have waited long enough,” she hazarded, to which each girl said a fervent though silent “amen.”  “I suppose we shall have to follow Mollie’s suggestion and gather sticks and stones.  Perhaps we can scare them away.”

“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 ’em 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, followed after.

In a moment the entire flock was galloping off down the road with the excited girls in pursuit.  There is no telling how far they might have followed the sheep had not Betty become suddenly possessed of a grain of common-sense.

Panting and laughing, she came to a standstill while the girls rushed past her.

“Come back here!” she cried, her voice choked with laughter.  “There’s no use of our being as silly as the sheep.  Mrs. Irving will think we have deserted her.”

So reluctantly the girls abandoned the chase and started back to rejoin their much relieved but slightly dazed chaperon.

“Now if we had only done that an hour ago,” said Mollie, as they climbed back into the machines determined to make up for lost time, “we would have been that much nearer the lodge and—­ something to eat.”