They reached Cirencester at five o'clock, and at once turned to the left to the Fairford road, intending to camp just outside the town till Monday; and it was here that Gregory had his first rebuff in his capacity as Requester of Camping Grounds.He brought it upon himself by refusing to let Mary accompany him, and, indeed, refusing advice altogether.
He marched off to the farmhouse, which could be seen in the distance across the meadows, full of assurance; but misfortunes began at once.No sooner was he well in the first meadow than a flock of geese suddenly appeared from nowhere and approached him.There is something very horrid about the approach of a flock of geese.They are not really dangerous, but they lower their heads and hiss and come on so steadily and are so impossible to deal with.A dog can be hit with a stick; but you can't hit a goose.There were no stones to throw, and the stupid, angry birds came every moment nearer.
Gregory did not wish to go back, and did not want to appear frightened in the eyes of the others, who were very likely watching, and he therefore had nothing to do but run as fast as he could for the farther gate and scramble over it.
Here he paused for a moment, to be in no way reassured by the sight, much too near the path, of a number of bullocks.In the ordinary way Gregory did not mind bullocks --did not, in fact, think about them--but just now he was flustered and rather nervous.However, he walked steadily forward and got safely past the first.Then, with his face kept straight and brave, but his eye anxiously peering through the back of his head to see what the first was doing, he approached the second and got past that all right.But the third gave him a wild and, as it seemed, furious look, and this turned him cold; and then he was perfectly certain that he could feel the others close behind him breathing hot on his neck, and once again he broke into a terrified run, and so gained the next gate, over which he may be said to have fallen rather than climbed.
On the other and safe side he paused again, and again looked for the enemy.
Seeing none, he once more started forward.
This was the last meadow, and the farm was at the end of it, and Gregory was quite close to the farm, when suddenly there appeared, right in his path, with a challenging tail in air, a large dog--a collie.
Gregory stopped and the collie stopped, and the two looked at each other carefully.
Gregory remembered all that he had ever heard about collies being treacherous and fierce.
He advanced a step; the collie did not move.
He advanced another step; and then, to his horror, the collie began to advance too, lifting his feet high and dangerously.
Gregory forced himself to say, "Good dog! " but the collie still advanced.
Gregory said, "Poor fellow, then!" and the collie at once did something perfectly awful: he growled.
Gregory had no courage left.His tongue and lips refused to obey him.He felt his knees turning to water.
How he wished he had let Mary come too! Dogs always liked her.Why was it that dogs liked some people and not others? he asked himself.Ridiculous!
No one liked dogs better than he, if this ass of a collie only knew it.
Meanwhile, the collie, still growling, drew nearer, and Gregory felt himself pricking all over.Where would it bite him first? he wondered.
But just as he had given up all hope, a voice called out sharply, "Caesar, come here!" and the collie turned and ran to where a tall, red-faced man was standing.
"What do you want?" the man then said to Gregory, with equal sharpness.
"You're trespassing."
Gregory was frankly crying now--with relief; but he pulled himself together and said he wanted to see the farmer.
"I'm the farmer," said the man."What is it?"Gregory explained what he had come for.
"No," said the farmer, "not on my land."
Gregory said that other farmers had said yes.
"I don't care," said the farmer, "I say NO."Gregory longed to ask if there was another way back, but he had not the courage, and he turned and made again for the gate of the bullock meadow.
The bullocks were still near the path, so he climbed softly over the gate, as he feared they might hear him, and crept round by the hedge to the next gate without attracting any notice.
Had he only known, he might have gone safely by the path, for one bullock was saying to another: "There's that little duffer going all that long way out of his course just for fear of us.What do you say to trotting down to the gate and giving him another scare?""No," said the other."It's not worth while.He's very small, too, and these horns, you know--they are a bit startling.Besides, there are all those flies by the gate.""True," said the other; "but it makes me smile, all the same."So Gregory got out safely, and, performing the same manoeuvre with the geese, he reached the caravan and Janet's arms without further misfortune.
The others were of course disappointed at the result of his mission, and walked on another half-mile, much farther from Cirencester than they had wished to be, to the next farm.
