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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Tale of Snowball Lamb, by Arthur Bailey
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Tale of Snowball Lamb
+
+Author: Arthur Bailey
+
+Illustrator: Harry L. Smith
+
+Release Date: February 13, 2008 [EBook #24592]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF SNOWBALL LAMB ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Joe Longo, Emmy and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE TALE OF SNOWBALL LAMB
+
+
+
+
+SLUMBER-TOWN TALES
+
+(Trademark Registered)
+
+BY
+
+ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY
+
+        AUTHOR OF
+        SLEEPY-TIME TALES
+        (Trademark Registered)
+
+        TUCK-ME-IN TALES
+        (Trademark Registered)
+
+
+        THE TALE OF THE MULEY COW
+        THE TALE OF OLD DOG SPOT
+        THE TALE OF GRUNTY PIG
+        THE TALE OF HENRIETTA HEN
+        THE TALE OF TURKEY PROUDFOOT
+        THE TALE OF PONY TWINKLEHEELS
+        THE TALE OF MISS KITTY CAT
+
+[Illustration: "You'd Better Git Out of the Way," Said Henrietta Hen.
+
+_The Tale of Snowball Lamb._
+
+_Frontispiece_--(_Page 16_)]
+
+
+
+
+        SLUMBER-TOWN TALES
+        (Trademark Registered)
+
+        THE TALE OF
+        SNOWBALL LAMB
+
+        BY
+        ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY
+        Author of
+        "SLEEPY-TIME TALES"
+        (Trademark Registered)
+
+        and
+
+        "TUCK-ME-IN TALES"
+        (Trademark Registered)
+
+        ILLUSTRATED BY
+        HARRY L. SMITH
+
+        NEW YORK
+        GROSSET & DUNLAP
+        PUBLISHERS
+
+        Made in the United States of America
+
+
+
+
+        COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY
+        GROSSET & DUNLAP
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                       PAGE
+
+      I  BLACK AND WHITE           7
+
+     II  A RIDE TO TOWN           12
+
+    III  MRS. HEN TELLS TALES     17
+
+     IV  SCHOOL BEGINS            22
+
+      V  THE PROMISED TREAT       29
+
+     VI  MR. CROW EXPLAINS        33
+
+    VII  WARNING THE FLOCK        38
+
+   VIII  SALTING THE SHEEP        43
+
+     IX  CIRCUS TRICKS            50
+
+      X  THE TIGER                55
+
+     XI  CRACKED CORN             60
+
+    XII  THE ACCIDENT             64
+
+   XIII  FOLLOW MY LEADER         69
+
+    XIV  TEASING UNCLE JERRY      74
+
+     XV  UNCLE JERRY OBJECTS      79
+
+    XVI  AUNT NANCY'S PLAN        84
+
+   XVII  A TERRIBLE MIX-UP        88
+
+  XVIII  THE SWING                92
+
+    XIX  THE WRONG TARGET         97
+
+     XX  THE SWIMMING HOLE       102
+
+    XXI  A DUCKING               107
+
+   XXII  A GREAT JOKE            112
+
+  XXIII  A MYSTERY               117
+
+   XXIV  HALF AND HALF           122
+
+
+
+
+THE TALE OF SNOWBALL LAMB
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+BLACK AND WHITE
+
+
+"Hurrah!" Johnnie Green shouted. And he dashed out of the woodshed and
+ran to the barnyard as fast as he could scamper.
+
+There was a good reason for his high spirits and his haste. His father
+had just told him he might have a lamb for a pet.
+
+Farmer Green followed Johnnie at a slower pace. When he reached the
+barnyard fence Johnnie was already on the other side of it, trying to
+catch a certain black lamb.
+
+Now, Johnnie Green was spry; but this black lamb was sprier. Whenever
+Johnnie thought he had the lamb the black rascal always managed to slip
+out of his clutches.
+
+"I'll help you," said Farmer Green. And climbing the fence, he soon had
+the lively lamb cornered and caught.
+
+Then Johnnie lost no time in taking his new pet in his own arms.
+
+"I'm going to call him----" Johnnie began, as his father let go of the
+struggling black armful.
+
+But Johnnie Green never finished what he had started to say. The first
+thing he knew the lamb had squirmed out of his arms and was running up
+the lane.
+
+Johnnie straightened up and gazed after him in dismay.
+
+"I don't believe I'll call him anything," he murmured, half to himself.
+
+Farmer Green couldn't help laughing. And then, noticing a very
+disappointed look on Johnnie's face, he said, "Cheer up, Johnnie! That
+lamb is the youngest one on the farm, but he's too big for a pet. He's a
+wild one. Let him run with the flock and we'll see if we can't do
+something to make you feel happy."
+
+Well, Johnnie Green knew that when his father talked like that it was
+silly to be glum. So he cried, "All right!" And turning his back upon
+the black lamb, which was by this time almost up to the head of the
+lane, Johnnie walked back to the woodshed.
+
+The next day, when Farmer Green came home from a drive over the hill,
+Johnnie shouted "Hurrah!" once more. For lying on a bit of hay in the
+bottom of the buggy was a white lamb no more than half as big as the
+lively black scamp that had got away from Johnnie the day before.
+
+Johnnie Green didn't need to ask whose lamb this was. He knew at once
+that it was his own.
+
+"Where'd you get him?" he demanded.
+
+"At your uncle's!" his father explained.
+
+Johnnie lifted the white lamb out of the buggy and set him down gingerly
+upon the ground. And the white lamb didn't try to run off. He was only a
+tiny thing, with a very soft coat and a very pink nose.
+
+"I wonder if he's hungry," said Johnnie Green. "I'll get some corn and
+see if he wants anything."
+
+"You'll have to feed him milk in a bottle," his father told him. "He
+isn't weaned yet. Bring him into the woodshed!"
+
+In a little while Johnnie's father had found a baby's bottle, which he
+filled with warm milk.
+
+Then all Johnnie had to do was to hold the bottle to his new pet's
+mouth. The lamb did the rest.
+
+"I'm going to call him 'Snowball,'" Johnnie announced. And then he began
+to laugh.
+
+"Look at his tail!" he shouted. "He'll switch it off if he isn't
+careful."
+
+For as Snowball drank the milk he jerked his stubby tail up and down at
+a great rate.
+
+Old dog Spot, who was stretched upon the woodshed threshold, gazed at
+Snowball with a lofty air.
+
+"That lamb has a queer notion of the way a tail ought to be wagged," he
+said deep down in his throat. "He ought to wag it from side to side. But
+I suppose he's too young to know better."
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+A RIDE TO TOWN
+
+
+Much to old dog Spot's disgust Johnnie Green and his new pet lamb soon
+became great friends. It wasn't long before Snowball, as Johnnie called
+the white lamb, followed his young master about the yard and even into
+the farmhouse--when Mrs. Green wasn't looking.
+
+It was a remark that Johnnie made about Snowball one day which caused
+old Spot to speak his mind plainly to the Muley Cow. Johnnie Green
+actually said, in Spot's hearing, "Snowball knows as much as a dog!"
+
+"I never did have any use for sheep," Spot told the Muley Cow.
+"Everybody knows they're all terribly stupid. So you can imagine how I
+felt when Johnnie Green spoke like that to his father."
+
+The Muley Cow chewed her cud. She had a far-off look in her eyes, as if
+she might be thinking about what Spot was saying--or as if she might
+not. Anyhow, she did not speak.
+
+"And to think--" Spot growled--"to think how I used to take care of
+Johnnie when he was no more than a baby! Do you suppose this lamb could
+take care of a baby? Do you suppose he'd pull a baby out of the mill
+pond? Or fight off a bull? Or kill a snake?"
+
+The Muley Cow turned her calm face upon Spot.
+
+"If you're jealous----" she began.
+
+"Jealous!" Spot barked. "Of course I'm not jealous. But I must say that
+this Snowball Lamb is very displeasing to me."
+
+"Then why don't you----" the Muley Cow began again.
+
+"I would," Spot interrupted, "I would--only I'm not a sheep-killer. And
+I don't intend to become one."
+
+"This boy," said the Muley Cow, "he'll grow tired of that lamb. The
+other boys will begin to tease him because the lamb follows him about.
+And that will be too much for Johnnie. . . . I know boys," the Muley
+Cow declared.
+
+Old dog Spot sighed. "I hope you're not mistaken," he remarked. "Time
+will tell. Just now anybody can see that Johnnie Green is simply crazy
+about that silly new pet of his."
+
+It was only a few days later that something happened to cause old dog
+Spot to lose all hope.
+
+Johnnie Green and his father hitched up the old horse Ebenezer and
+started for the village. Of course Spot would have followed them, under
+the wagon, if he had been at the barn when they left. But he wasn't. He
+was up in the pasture, chasing woodchucks.
+
+Just as old Ebenezer turned the corner at the foot of the hill Johnnie
+Green happened to look back. And there was Snowball, following a little
+way behind them!
+
+Of course it would never do to let him run all the way to the village
+and back. And Farmer Green didn't want to turn around and take Snowball
+home. So Johnnie Green jumped down and lifted Snowball into the wagon.
+
+So he rode to the village; and then rode home again.
+
+Johnnie Green was greatly pleased by the whole affair. And Snowball was
+pleased, too. As soon as he reached the farmyard he began talking about
+his trip to the village.
+
+Everybody listened to Snowball with wonder. That is, everybody wondered
+except Henrietta Hen. She began talking in a shrill voice about her
+visit to the county fair. And she said spitefully to Snowball, "You'd
+better get out of the way before old dog Spot comes back from the
+pasture!"
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+MRS. HEN TELLS TALES
+
+
+Old dog Spot came home from the pasture feeling quite pleased with
+himself. He had caught a fat woodchuck. And that was enough to make him
+happy.
+
+Spot hadn't crossed the barnyard when Henrietta Hen came fluttering up
+to him. She was a busybody, always trying to get somebody into trouble.
+"Snowball went to the village with Johnnie Green and his father!"
+Henrietta shrieked.
+
+"That's good news," said old dog Spot. "I've been hoping to hear
+something like that. We're well rid of that Snowball Lamb."
+
+"Oh! But they brought him back with them!" Henrietta Hen explained.
+
+Spot's face fell. "That's a pity," he said.
+
+Henrietta Hen peered into Spot's face. There was something that she
+couldn't understand.
+
+"Why aren't you angry?" she inquired in her high-pitched voice. "Don't
+you realize that Snowball tried to _follow the wagon_ to the village? To
+be sure, they picked him up down at the corner. But I want you to know
+that he tried to _take your place_."
+
+At that old Spot let out a howl of rage.
+
+"I'll never go woodchuck hunting again!" he cried. "Things have come to
+a pretty pass if I can't leave the farmyard for a few hours without
+having a lamb insult me like that."
+
+Henrietta Hen was pleased.
+
+"I thought you'd want to know what had happened," she remarked. "And now
+I must add that Snowball has been boasting about his trip. Of course,
+his journey was nothing, compared with my visit to the county fair last
+year. But I don't like to hear a lamb telling about his travels. Can't
+you put a stop to it?"
+
+Old dog Spot shook his head.
+
+"For once," he said slowly, "I can't help wishing I was a sheep-killer."
+
+"Well," said Henrietta, "you know you could try."
+
+"It's not a question of trying," Spot told her. "My family isn't a
+sheep-killing one. I have to live up to the family name."
+
+"Well," Henrietta Hen declared, "if I were you I'd join another
+family--at least for a short time."
+
+But old dog Spot declared that that wouldn't do at all. "We'll have to
+be patient," he said. "The Muley Cow claims that Johnnie Green will get
+tired of Snowball sooner or later. It may be that she is right. Let us
+hope so!"
+
+"Farmer Green ought to turn that great lamb into the pasture," Henrietta
+Hen spluttered.
+
+That was exactly what Mrs. Green herself thought.
+
+"Your lamb can't come into my kitchen!" she called at that very moment.
+For Johnnie Green was just then entering the doorway, with Snowball at
+his heels.
+
+"Thank goodness," Spot barked, "there's one person on this farm who has
+some sense! If it wasn't for Mrs. Green I'd be tempted to run away."
+
+As Johnnie Green closed the door behind him, leaving Snowball upon the
+stone step, Snowball gave a plaintive _baa-a-a!_
+
+"Ugh!" cackled Henrietta Hen. "Did you ever hear such a silly sound in
+all your life?"
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+SCHOOL BEGINS
+
+
+After Snowball's trip to the village old dog Spot scarcely stirred from
+the farmyard. He left the woodchucks to scurry about the pasture as they
+pleased. For he felt that he ought to keep an eye on Snowball.
+
+The very next time that Snowball started to follow Johnnie Green out of
+the yard Spot ran up to him and barked at his heels. "Go back!" Spot
+growled. "Don't you dare leave this yard!"
+
+And then, to Spot's surprise, Johnnie Green picked up a stick and
+threatened him with it.
+
+"You let my lamb alone!" Johnnie cried. That was bad enough, according
+to old dog Spot's notion. But when Johnnie shouted, "Get out!" at him,
+that was worse.
+
+Spot tucked his tail between his legs and slunk away, to hide himself
+under the woodshed. And there he stayed for the rest of the morning and
+sulked.
+
+But in the afternoon he began to feel more cheerful. For Spot had heard
+Mrs. Green remark that school began the next day.
+
+That was good news. At least Spot so thought it.
+
+"This lamb won't get much notice from Johnnie Green after to-day," Spot
+told Henrietta Hen. "He'll be left here in the yard. And it won't be
+long now before Mrs. Green tells Farmer Green to put him in the pasture
+with the flock. She won't have him in everybody's way. She'll get rid
+of him quickly. You know that when Mrs. Green makes up her mind, things
+generally happen to suit her."
+
+Henrietta nodded her handsome head.
+
+"Just what I've often told the Rooster!" she exclaimed.
+
+Well, the following morning, as much as an hour after breakfast, Johnnie
+Green started up the road with some books under his arm and a lunch
+basket in his hand. It was the first day of school. And somehow Johnnie
+wasn't feeling very happy. He had dawdled about the house--so his mother
+said. It appeared that he was in no hurry to leave home.
+
+Before Johnnie had reached the barn, which stood beside the road, Mrs.
+Green stepped out of the house and looked at him.
+
+"You'd better get along!" she called after him. "You don't want to be
+late the first day of school!"
+
+So Johnnie Green fell into a jog trot, which he kept up all the way to
+the red schoolhouse.
+
+As he came in sight of the little box-like building he saw other
+youngsters hurrying through the doorway. And then Johnnie ran as fast as
+he could.
+
+He burst inside the schoolroom just as the school mistress tapped the
+little bell on her desk, which meant that everybody must stop talking,
+because school had begun. Johnnie Green hurried to a seat. But before he
+reached it all the other pupils burst into a shout.
+
+Johnnie looked around. And there, trotting across the floor, was
+Snowball! He had followed Johnnie all the way from Farmer Green's barn.
+
+It was some time before things were quiet. The teacher had to ring her
+little bell a good many times, and even rap upon her desk with a ruler,
+before the boys and girls stopped laughing. And then the teacher turned
+to Johnnie Green and spoke to him.
+
+"Mary!" she said. "Is this your little lamb?"
+
+The teacher seemed surprised because her pupils began to roar at that.
+But she made no attempt to silence them. She did not even try to quiet a
+certain boy called "Red," who made more noise than all the rest
+together.
+
+Meanwhile Johnnie Green's face looked like a great red apple. And it
+grew several shades redder when Snowball walked up to his seat and stood
+close beside him.
+
+"Don't you think--" said the teacher after a while--"don't you think,
+Mary, that you'd better take your little lamb home?"
+
+Johnnie Green did not answer. But he hung his head as he rose and
+hurried out of the schoolroom, with Snowball following close behind him.
+
+Once outside Johnnie could hear the children still laughing. And he even
+thought that he could hear the teacher laughing, too.
+
+That very morning Snowball found himself turned into the pasture where
+Farmer Green's flock of sheep were passing the summer. And it wasn't
+long before the whole barnyard was filled with the noise of gossiping
+tongues.
+
+"For once," said Henrietta Hen, "the Muley Cow knew what she was talking
+about when she said Johnnie Green would grow tired of that white lamb."
+
+As for old dog Spot, he told everybody that he was going up to the
+pasture to chase woodchucks.
+
+And as for Johnnie Green, he told his mother that he didn't believe he'd
+go back to school any more.
+
+But she said he should, and that very morning.
+
+And things generally happened the way Mrs. Green intended.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE PROMISED TREAT
+
+
+Snowball wasn't sorry that Johnnie Green had turned him into the
+pasture. He found the pasture a delightful place. He had plenty of
+company, for there was a whole flock of sheep with him. And not only did
+he soon become acquainted with them. He met other folk, such as Billy
+Woodchuck and Jimmy Rabbit and old Mr. Crow. And though some of the
+older sheep paid scant heed to so young a lamb as Snowball, Mr. Crow
+often went out of his way to stop and talk with him.
+
+That was because Mr. Crow loved a bit of gossip. And he was willing to
+chat with anybody on the chance of picking up some interesting morsel
+of news.
+
+"We're going to have a treat," Snowball informed old Mr. Crow one day.
+
+The old gentleman cocked his head on one side and looked at Snowball.
+
+"How do you know you are?" he demanded. He was a great one for asking
+questions.
+
+"The Muley Cow told me," Snowball explained. "Down in the barn she heard
+Farmer Green tell Johnnie about it."
+
+"Ah, ha!" cried Mr. Crow. "I'll have to keep an eye on things. If
+there's going to be a treat I must get my share of it. . . . Where's
+it going to be--where do you expect to have this treat?"
+
+"Right here in this pasture!"
+
+"That's good!" Mr. Crow exclaimed. "I'm glad of that. I can enjoy it,
+then. I feared it might be in the barn. And I like plenty of room if
+I'm to enjoy a treat properly."
+
+Snowball began to feel a bit uneasy.
+
+"The Muley Cow didn't say anything about your being invited," he
+blurted. "In fact she said that this treat was for us sheep only."
+
+"Don't you worry about that!" the old gentleman assured him. "I know
+well enough that if Farmer Green didn't mention inviting me it was
+because he forgot it. I know he wouldn't like it if I stayed away."
+
+Snowball began to wish he hadn't mentioned the treat to Mr. Crow. But
+the secret was out. And when Mr. Crow asked when the treat was going to
+be Snowball confessed that the Muley Cow had told him the flock would
+enjoy it that very day.
+
+"Ah!" said Mr. Crow with a smirk. "Then I must stay where I can see
+what's going on. So I'm going to sit in that tall elm over by the stone
+wall. When I see the sheep begin to bunch together I'll join you at
+once. . . . Please bleat three times when the treat is ready, for I might
+be dozing."
+
+"I will," Snowball promised.
+
+And then Mr. Crow got ready to fly away.
+
+"By the way," he said, pausing, "what's the treat to be?"
+
+"The Muley Cow said she heard Farmer Green tell Johnnie to 'salt the
+sheep to-day,'" Snowball explained.
+
+To his great surprise old Mr. Crow let out a deafening squawk when he
+heard that bit of news.
+
+"Then I'll keep as far away from the pasture as I can get!" he cried.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+MR. CROW EXPLAINS
+
+
+Snowball couldn't understand old Mr. Crow's rage. Mr. Crow had invited
+himself to the treat that Johnnie Green was going to give the flock. But
+the moment the old gentleman heard that the treat was going to be _salt_
+he had squalled at the top of his hoarse voice that he was going to stay
+as far from the pasture as he could get.
+
+"What's the matter?" Snowball asked Mr. Crow. "Don't you like salt?"
+
+Mr. Crow made a wry face.
+
+"No, I don't!" he spluttered.
+
+"Well, just because you don't happen to care for salt is no reason for
+your being so angry," Snowball told him.
+
+And then Mr. Crow almost took his breath away.
+
+"I agree with you," he said gruffly! And Mr. Crow was a person who was
+never known to agree with anybody! So that was an astonishing remark for
+him to make.
+
+"Then I suppose you'll get over being angry, at once," Snowball
+ventured.
+
+"I won't!" Mr. Crow thundered. "And take a bit of advice, young fellow:
+Don't go near the salting party! It will be dangerous," he added darkly.
+
+"Why will it be dangerous?" Snowball inquired.
+
+The old gentleman shook his head and put on a very wise look.
+
+"I don't believe you've ever been at a salting party," he said.
+
+And Snowball confessed that he hadn't.
+
+Whereat Mr. Crow nodded his head up and down several times and looked
+even wiser than before.
+
+"It's lucky for you, my lad, that you told me about this affair," he
+declared. "For I'm going to keep you out of a peck of trouble. Don't you
+go near the party! Keep just as far away from it as you can! When you
+see Johnnie Green come inside the pasture you scramble over the stone
+wall and hide!" And now he shook his head.
+
+"It's a pity--" he sighed--"a pity you can't fly, or climb a tree."
+
+He was so gloomy that Snowball couldn't help feeling uncomfortable. And
+all he could manage to say was one word which he had hard work to
+stammer out. It was "W-w-why?"
+
+"Because it's just a trick!" Mr. Crow explained. "It's a trick to catch
+you. This trick of salting the sheep is as old as the hills. But I
+suppose you're so young you never have happened to hear of it. I must
+say," he added, "I'm surprised that the Muley Cow didn't take the
+trouble to tell you all about it."
+
+"Maybe she's too young to know about it, too," Snowball suggested.
+
+"Young!" Mr. Crow cried with a short, mirthless laugh. "The Muley Cow's
+not young. She's the oldest cow on the farm. If the truth must be told,
+she's so old that Farmer Green wouldn't keep her if it weren't that
+Johnnie Green thinks she belongs to him. And he'd raise a terrible row
+if his father sold her."
+
+"Are you too young to explain about this trick that you just warned me
+against?" Snowball asked. "I'd like to know how there can be any danger
+in salt. How can anybody be caught with salt?"
+
+"Well, you _are_ a silly!" cried Mr. Crow. "Can't you guess that Johnnie
+Green is going to put salt on everybody's tail?"
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+WARNING THE FLOCK
+
+
+Snowball Lamb was puzzled. He didn't understand old Mr. Crow's answer at
+all.
+
+"What if Johnnie Green should put salt on my tail?" he asked Mr. Crow.
+"What harm would that do?"
+
+The old gentleman stared at Snowball as if he couldn't quite believe
+that anybody could be so stupid.
+
+"Haven't you ever heard that that's the way to catch people?" cried Mr.
+Crow at last. "Why, there isn't a boy in Pleasant Valley who doesn't
+know that; and many of 'em carry salt about in their pockets all the
+time, hoping to get a chance some day to put the salt on my tail, and
+capture me!" Mr. Crow's bright eyes snapped. And his bill snapped, too.
+For the mere thought of such scheming always made him terribly angry.
+
+And then Snowball said something that made Mr. Crow more impatient than
+ever.
+
+"I don't care if Johnnie Green does catch me," Snowball declared.
+"Johnnie wouldn't hurt me. We've always been great friends."
+
+"He wouldn't, eh?" Mr. Crow retorted. "How do you know he wouldn't hurt
+you?"
+
+"He never _has_ hurt me," Snowball replied.
+
+"Perhaps not! Perhaps not!" Mr. Crow croaked. "But you never can tell.
+You never can tell what a boy will do. And if you go to the salting
+party and get into trouble, don't say I didn't warn you!" As the old
+fellow flew off he looked as if all the cares in the world were weighing
+him down. Snowball noticed that he flew heavily. It took a great amount
+of flapping of his broad wings to lift him out of the pasture. And when
+he was well up in the air he gave a glum _caw, caw_ as he wheeled and
+sailed away down the wind.
+
+Well, Snowball couldn't help being somewhat disturbed by Mr. Crow's
+grave actions and his graver remarks. "I wonder," thought Snowball, "if
+Mr. Crow knows what he's talking about. I'll ask the flock!"
+
+So Snowball ran down the hillside pasture to the place where the flock
+had gathered to graze. And to his astonishment some of the flock didn't
+even lift their heads from the grass when he related all that Mr. Crow
+had said. Those that did pause and listen to Snowball only giggled and
+went to feeding again. No! there was one that spoke to him. Aunt Nancy
+Ewe spoke up a bit tartly.
+
+"If you're worried you'd better stay away when Johnnie Green comes to
+salt us," she told him. "_We_ all expect to have a very pleasant time,"
+she added.
+
+"Have you ever had salt put on your tail?" Snowball asked the old lady.
+
+"Certainly not!" she snapped. And she glared at Snowball so fiercely
+that he fell back several steps. "Are you trying to insult me?" she
+cried.
+
+He did not answer. It was plain to him that Aunt Nancy didn't know
+anything about the trick of putting salt on one's tail. Yes! Mr. Crow
+must be wiser than she was.
+
+"They'll all get into trouble," Snowball thought. And then he said
+something that was almost exactly like what Mr. Crow had said to him.
+"They can't say I didn't warn them!"
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+SALTING THE SHEEP
+
+
+Snowball Lamb stood in the pasture apart from the rest of the flock.
+Aunt Nancy Ewe had returned to her grazing. And not one of her
+companions acted as if some dreadful peril hung over him. Nobody would
+have thought, to look at the flock, that they were about to have salt
+put on their tails. But Snowball knew that it was so. Far down the
+valley he could hear old Mr. Crow's warning _caw_, _caw_, telling him
+again to beware of Johnnie Green.
+
+And just then Johnnie squirmed through the pasture bars and pulled a
+sack after him. Presently he began to call to the sheep. And Snowball
+watched while they went, one and all, on a dead run towards the bars.
+
+Then Snowball turned and ran the other way, straight for the stone wall.
+He didn't even look back once, but scrambled over the wall and lost
+himself in the tangle of berry bushes that grew in a rocky old pasture
+that hadn't been used for years.
+
+"He's salting them by this time," Snowball muttered to himself. "Johnnie
+Green is salting the sheep. And I'm glad Mr. Crow warned me, for I
+shouldn't want salt put on my tail. It must be terrible to be caught
+that way."
+
+"What's that you're saying?" said a lively voice near-by.
+
+Snowball leaped back; then stood still and stared at a pair of antlers
+which stuck up from behind a berry bush.
+
+The antlers rose a little higher. And then Snowball saw the face of
+Nimble Deer beneath them.
+
+"What were you murmuring about _salt_?" Nimble inquired pleasantly.
+
+"Johnnie Green is salting the sheep over in our pasture," Snowball
+explained.
+
+"He is, eh?" cried Nimble Deer. "Then why aren't you there with the
+rest?"
+
+Snowball shook his head.
+
+"It's too dangerous," he said. "I don't want salt put on my tail."
+
+Nimble Deer gave him a queer look.
+
+"It is dangerous, while Johnnie Green is there--or it would be dangerous
+if he had a gun," Nimble admitted. "But what's this you say about salt
+on your tail?"
+
+"Johnnie Green is putting salt on the tail of every sheep in the flock,"
+Snowball declared.
+
+"That's odd," said Nimble. "I'll have to look into this matter--after
+Johnnie Green has left the pasture."
+
+Snowball did not follow Nimble as he moved nearer the stone wall. But he
+stood still and watched. Presently he saw Nimble leap the wall. After
+that Snowball could no longer see him.
+
+It was some time later when Nimble jumped back over the wall and landed
+lightly on the ledge that ran alongside it. And Snowball noticed that
+his face wore a very cheerful look.
+
+"Well?" said Snowball.
+
+"That was as good salt as I ever tasted," Nimble remarked, running his
+tongue over his lips. "If you hurry you'll be able to get a taste even
+now."
+
+"I've never eaten any salt," said Snowball.
+
+"Then hurry, by all means!" cried Nimble Deer. "You don't know what
+you're missing."
+
+"Has Johnnie gone?" Snowball inquired.
+
+"Long ago!"
+
+"I suppose he spilled some of the salt on the ground," said Snowball.
+"You know he's a very careless boy."
+
+"He spilled heaps of it," Nimble Deer replied. "But the sheep are eating
+it fast."
+
+Well, Snowball was puzzled. How could the sheep be eating salt if
+Johnnie Green had caught them? It was more than he could understand. But
+if Nimble Deer had been with them--and come back safely--there couldn't
+be any great danger.
+
+So Snowball hurried over the stone wall and scampered down to the place
+near the bars, where the flock still lingered.
+
+As Snowball joined them he saw that they were all busily eating
+something white that lay in little piles upon the ground.
+
+He tasted of the stuff, carefully. It was delicious. And wasting no more
+time, he gobbled up all of the salt that he could get.
+
+When it was gone Snowball turned to old Aunt Nancy Ewe.
+
+"May I lick the salt off your tail?" he asked her politely.
+
+She gave him a haughty stare.
+
+"Have you no respect for your elders?" Aunt Nancy asked him severely.
+
+"Pardon me!" said Snowball. "Maybe I'm mistaken, but Mr. Crow told
+me----"
+
+[Illustration: Aunt Nancy Scolded Snowball
+
+_The Tale of Snowball Lamb._ _Page_ 48]
+
+"Mr. Crow!" Aunt Nancy cried, before Snowball could finish. "So it's Mr.
+Crow that's been putting queer ideas into your head! I might have known
+it. After this don't ever listen to him! He's been the means of your
+almost missing a fine treat--and one that doesn't come every day in the
+year."
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+CIRCUS TRICKS
+
+
+Johnnie Green had been to the circus. And of course he wanted to try a
+good many tricks that he had learned there. At first he made old dog
+Spot perform for him. But when he attempted to get Spot to jump through
+a hoop of fire the old dog refused flatly to play any more.
+
+That was why Johnnie went to the pasture and brought Snowball Lamb back
+to the farmyard.
+
+"Now, Snowball," said Johnnie Green, "I've been to the circus and seen
+ever so many kinds of trained animals--horses and elephants and dogs and
+monkeys and seals. But I didn't see any trained lamb. If you pay
+attention and learn what I try to teach you maybe you and I can join the
+circus next year."
+
+Snowball Lamb answered, "_Baa-a-a!_"
+
+"All right!" cried Johnnie. "Now you just jump through this wooden
+hoop!"
+
+But it didn't prove to be as easy as all that. Johnnie Green had to work
+a long, long time before he succeeded at last in teaching Snowball to
+obey him. And then, after Snowball jumped through the hoop in as
+graceful a manner as anybody could have asked for, Johnnie was not quite
+satisfied.
+
+"You'll have to learn to jump through a paper hoop if we're ever going
+to be taken along with the circus," he told Snowball.
+
+Again Snowball answered, "_Baa-a-a!_"
+
+"All right!" said Johnnie. "I'll make some paper hoops. And to-morrow
+we'll see what you can do."
+
+So back to the pasture went Snowball. And into the woodshed went Johnnie
+Green. There he stayed all the rest of the afternoon, knocking old
+barrels apart, chopping and sawing and hammering. He laid newspapers
+down upon the floor and trimmed them neatly with his mother's shears. He
+made flour paste in the kitchen. And when milking time came he had four
+fine hoops all covered with newspaper.
+
+Johnnie wanted to make one more. But his father came along and happened
+to pick up a barrel stave, remarking that it was just the thing to make
+a boy jump to his work. So Johnnie decided, for some reason or other,
+that four hoops would be enough to practice with. Of course when he and
+Snowball joined the circus they would need dozens of hoops. But there
+wasn't really any hurry about that.
+
+So he went for a milk pail and trotted off to the barn, where he sat
+down on his three-legged stool and began milking the Muley Cow.
+
+He couldn't help thinking, as he sat there and sent streams of milk
+tinkling down upon the bottom of the tin pail, what a fine scheme it
+would be to build a hoop big enough for the Muley Cow to jump through.
+It ought to be easy to teach her. For everybody knew that she was a
+famous jumper. She made more trouble, jumping the fence, than all the
+rest of Farmer Green's herd.
+
+Johnnie Green got to thinking so intently about the matter that he began
+to dawdle. And if there was one thing that the Muley Cow didn't like it
+was to have to stand still while a slow milker puttered at his work. So
+she suddenly gave her tail a switch and brought the end of it across
+Johnnie Green's cheek.
+
+It was a stinging smack. And Johnnie Green cried, "Ouch!"
+
+After that he stopped his day-dreaming until milking was over. And then
+he went back to the woodshed and gazed at the four paper hoops leaning
+against the woodpile.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+THE TIGER
+
+
+In the same pasture with Snowball was a black lamb. He was the black
+lamb that Farmer Green once gave to Johnnie for a pet. But he ran away
+up the lane the very first time Johnnie tried to hold him in his arms.
+
+After that the black lamb had always stayed with the flock. He was a
+wild, unruly fellow, bigger and older than Snowball. And he was quite
+outspoken--and not always careful of his language.
+
+This black lamb chanced to be near Snowball when Johnnie Green came into
+the pasture on a certain fine morning. And when Johnnie began calling
+to Snowball the black lamb said, "Why don't you run the other way?
+That's what I always do when boys call me."
+
+Snowball made no answer. He stood and looked at Johnnie Green, who was
+walking towards him with outstretched hand.
+
+"Come on!" cried the black lamb. "I'll run with you."
+
+"No!" said Snowball. "Johnnie may have something good for me to eat.
+Some salt, maybe!"
+
+"Huh!" said the black lamb. "Don't be stupid! What if he has brought you
+a little salt? He'll want you to jump through that hoop again for him,
+the way he did yesterday." Snowball had told the black lamb about the
+strange proceeding of the afternoon before.
+
+"Well--" Snowball murmured, as he hesitated, not knowing whether to
+obey the black lamb or Johnnie Green.
+
+"Well! Are you coming with me?" the black lamb demanded. "_I'm_ not
+going to stay here where that boy can grab me. _I_ don't intend to spend
+my time jumping through any old hoop. _I'm_ not quite so silly as to do
+that."
+
+"I believe I'll let Johnnie catch me," Snowball told him. "Johnnie said
+something yesterday about our joining the circus. No doubt you've
+noticed the circus posters on the side of the barn?"
+
+"I have," said the black lamb with something like a sneer. "No doubt
+you've noticed the picture of the tiger?"
+
+"Yes, I have," Snowball admitted.
+
+"My uncle joined a circus once," said the black lamb.
+
+"Is that so?" cried Snowball. "Tell me--did he enjoy it?"
+
+"I can't say," the black lamb replied. "He never came back again. They
+fed him to the tiger--so I have been told."
+
+And then the black lamb started to run. And suddenly Snowball whisked
+about and followed him.
+
+Johnnie Green wondered what had come over Snowball. Was this the pet
+that had once followed him all the way to school?
+
+"I'll keep him tied up in the barn for a few days--once I catch him,"
+thought Johnnie. If he intended to teach circus tricks to Snowball he
+certainly didn't want to spend valuable time chasing him all around the
+pasture.
+
+At last Johnnie Green had Snowball cornered. At last he slipped a rope
+about Snowball's neck. And then he led his pet towards the bars.
+
+"_Baa-a-a!_" called the black lamb.
+
+It sounded so much like a jeer that Johnnie turned around and made a
+face at the black rascal.
+
+In the barnyard Johnnie brought forth a paper-covered hoop. He held it
+up in front of Snowball. "Jump!" he cried.
+
+But Snowball drew back.
+
+"_Baa-a-a!_" he bleated. "How do I know that there isn't a tiger behind
+that thing?"
+
+"Come!" Johnnie urged him. "Jump! Jump!"
+
+Snowball only moved further away.
+
+And then Johnnie Green lowered the paper-covered hoop and stepped
+forward to grasp Snowball by his fleece.
+
+As Johnnie's hand let the hoop fall Snowball gave a frightened blat.
+Staring right at him, and grinning horribly, was a tiger pasted upon the
+side of the barn.
+
+Snowball turned and ran towards the gate.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+CRACKED CORN
+
+
+The next time Johnnie Green dragged Snowball into the farmyard he shut
+the gate carefully behind him.
+
+"We'll never join the circus if you're going to behave like this,"
+Johnnie told Snowball severely. "Now, you pay attention!"
+
+He held up a bare hoop--not a paper-covered one--and when he said,
+"Jump!" Snowball showed that he had not forgotten his lesson of the
+afternoon before.
+
+"That's better!" cried Johnnie Green. "Jump again!" And when Snowball
+jumped once more Johnnie was so pleased that he went into the chicken
+house and came back with a handful of cracked corn. "Here!" he said to
+Snowball. "There's more like it if you behave yourself."
+
+Snowball munched his corn contentedly.
+
+"The black lamb would like this," he thought. "I'll tell him about this
+corn the next time I see him. Then maybe he won't be so quick to call me
+stupid."
+
+Somehow the cracked corn made Snowball forget all about the frightful
+picture of the tiger that grinned from the side of the barn. And at last
+Johnnie succeeded in getting Snowball to jump through one of the paper
+hoops which he had so carefully made the day before.
+
+"There!" Johnnie cried. "You've done it at last!" And he was so
+delighted that he went once more to the chicken house. And this time he
+brought back two handfuls of cracked corn.
+
+Unluckily, just as he came out of the chicken house he met his father
+going in.
+
+"Here!" Farmer Green exclaimed. "What are you doing with my chicken
+feed?"
+
+"I'm giving a little to Snowball," Johnnie told him.
+
+"Ah!" cried Farmer Green with a sly smile. "Fattening your lamb for
+market, eh?"
+
+Johnnie's face fell. "No!" he replied. "Of course not! I wouldn't sell
+Snowball. He's--he's too valuable."
+
+Farmer Green guffawed.
+
+"He's a circus lamb!" Johnnie cried hotly. "He's learning circus
+tricks!"
+
+"Well," said his father, "maybe I have some circus hens in here, for all
+I know. Don't you feed my corn to that lamb!"
+
+"Can your hens jump through paper hoops?" Johnnie asked.
+
+"Can your lamb?" demanded Farmer Green.
+
+"Watch!" said Johnnie then. And, holding up another of the paper-covered
+hoops, he persuaded Snowball to leap through it neatly.
+
+"Well, I'll be jiggered!" cried Farmer Green--whatever that may mean.
+
+Johnnie Green thought it was a good time to ask a question.
+
+"Mayn't I give him a little corn once in a while?" he begged.
+
+"Oh, I suppose so," said his father. "But if you get him too fat he
+won't be much of a jumper."
+
+"But jumping ought to keep him thin," Johnnie insisted.
+
+Just then Snowball gave a plaintive bleat: "_Baa-a-a-a!_"
+
+"There!" Johnnie exclaimed. "He thinks so, too!"
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+THE ACCIDENT
+
+
+Snowball was quick to learn one thing. He soon found that jumping
+through Johnnie Green's paper-covered hoops brought him plenty of
+cracked corn.
+
+No longer did Snowball run away from his young master when Johnnie
+entered the pasture and called to him. Nothing that the rascally black
+lamb said could persuade Snowball to lead Johnnie Green a chase.
+
+Much to the black lamb's disgust Snowball would start for the bars the
+moment Johnnie appeared there. "Johnnie wants to give me a treat!"
+Snowball would exclaim. "There's cracked corn waiting for me!" And off
+he would go.
+
+Strange as it may seem, Johnnie tired of the circus tricks before
+Snowball did. It wasn't long before several days would go by without
+Johnnie's once holding up a hoop for Snowball to jump through. And often
+Snowball would moon about the farmyard _wishing_ that Johnnie would do
+that very thing.
+
+"I hope the cracked corn isn't getting low," said Snowball to himself.
+And he cried, "_Ba-a-a-a-a!_" But Johnnie Green paid no heed to him.
+Though Johnnie was at that very moment in the swing he never once looked
+at Snowball as he roamed mournfully about.
+
+So Snowball crossed the road and strolled up the steep bank opposite the
+farmhouse. And having nothing better to do he was about to stroll down
+again when he spied something that made him stop short.
+
+Was that a paper-covered hoop that he saw, right there at the top of the
+bank? He wondered. It was round. And it was certainly covered with
+something that looked like paper.
+
+For a moment Snowball thought he would walk around the hoop--if it was
+one--and examine it. He couldn't see anybody holding it up on edge. But
+there it was, just waiting for somebody to come along and jump through
+it!
+
+"It's a hoop!" Snowball muttered to himself. "There's no doubt about
+that." And lowering his head he ran at the hoop--and jumped.
+
+There was a splitting sound and a crash, both at the same time.
+
+Instead of bursting through a thin paper shell and clearing the hoop
+neatly Snowball found himself wedged inside something. Though he didn't
+know it, he had butted the end of a barrel, knocking in its head and
+plunging headlong inside it.
+
+Meanwhile Johnnie Green had stopped swinging. He looked across the road
+just in time to see the barrel totter on the edge of the steep bank. Not
+only totter; but begin to roll down hill!
+
+Out of the barrel stuck two woolly legs, both kicking frantically.
+
+"What in the world----" Johnnie Green exclaimed. He leaped from the
+swing and ran towards the strange sight. But he was too late to help.
+
+The barrel fast gathered headway. It crossed the road like some live
+thing, to bring up against the farmhouse with a terrific smash.
+
+Instantly the barrel fell into a dozen pieces as its staves caved in.
+And out of the wreck rose Snowball. He gave one frightened bleat. And
+then he tore off towards the pasture as fast as he could run. He didn't
+even wait to see if Johnnie Green would give him a treat of cracked
+corn.
+
+As he ran he said to himself, "There may have been a tiger inside that
+thing. . . . I don't know! . . . I wouldn't join the circus for all the
+cracked corn in the world!"
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+FOLLOW MY LEADER
+
+
+There was one game of which Farmer Green's sheep never seemed to tire.
+They called it "Follow My Leader." And even the oldest members of the
+flock played it every day. Though they had grand-children--many of
+them--and were quite solemn and sedate, they still continued to run
+anywhere whenever somebody happened to lead the way.
+
+You wouldn't suppose they could have enjoyed leaving good pasturage to
+go tearing off to goodness knows where, just because some empty-headed
+sheep chanced to break into a run.
+
+When Snowball first joined the flock in the pasture he tried to do just
+as every one else did. So whenever he saw the flock get under way
+suddenly he hastened to keep up with the rest.
+
+At first Snowball was curious to know why they were all running. But
+nobody could tell him the reason. And in time he ceased to wonder.
+
+At last he decided, one day, to see if the flock would follow him. He
+looked about at his neighbors. They were feeding quietly.
+
+"I hope they'll play the game when I start it," Snowball said under his
+breath.
+
+And then, _baaing_ his loudest, he began to run.
+
+The flock stopped eating instantly. For a moment nobody moved.
+
+"They aren't going to play!" thought Snowball.
+
+But an old ewe suddenly wheeled about and followed him.
+
+That was enough for the others. Out of the corner of his eye Snowball
+could see them all jump and come crowding after him.
+
+He was headed for the stone wall. Beyond it lay a rough, rocky stretch
+of waste land, covered by a tangle of raspberry bushes.
+
+"I wonder if they'll follow me over the wall!" Snowball muttered.
+
+He didn't jump the wall. It was too high for that. But he scrambled over
+it without any trouble, for his little feet found plenty of footholds
+amid the jutting rocks.
+
+Snowball had already landed on the further side of the wall when _thud!
+thud! thud!_ other members of the flock came thumping down upon the
+ledge beside him. He moved aside a little way, because he didn't want
+to be stepped on.
+
+Then, all at once, a squeaky, frightened voice cried, "What's the
+matter? Is there an earthquake?"
+
+Though Snowball looked all about he couldn't see the speaker anywhere.
+
+Meanwhile there sounded a _patter, patter! patter!_ which came from
+hurrying feet in the pasture. And there sounded a _click! click! click!_
+which came from scrambling feet climbing over the wall. And there
+sounded further _thuds_ which came from those same feet as they
+thundered down upon the ledge.
+
+At last the slowest sheep had joined Snowball. He still searched for the
+squeaky voice.
+
+"This is queer!" Snowball murmured. "I don't see where that odd voice
+came from!"
+
+He soon found out. For as he picked his way to the foot of the ledge, to
+nibble at the grass that grew down below, he saw peering out of a hole
+in the ground the face of a fat old gentleman whom he had sometimes met
+in the pasture.
+
+This person's name was Uncle Jerry Chuck. And he looked terribly scared.
+His teeth were chattering. His nose was twitching.
+
+Somehow Uncle Jerry's fright seized Snowball, too. With a bleat of
+terror he turned and fled up the ledge, scurried over the wall, and ran
+back where he had just come from.
+
+Like one sheep the whole flock turned tail and followed Snowball with
+frantic _baas_.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+TEASING UNCLE JERRY
+
+
+Farmer Green's flock of sheep had followed Snowball over the stone wall
+and back into the pasture. And soon every one of them was grazing again
+as if nothing had happened.
+
+Now, Snowball was greatly pleased. It was the first time he had ever
+started that game called Follow My Leader. And there wasn't a sheep nor
+a lamb that hadn't gone chasing after him when he showed them the way.
+
+Snowball saw many merry games ahead of him. "I'll give them some good
+runs!" he promised himself.
+
+And he did. Before that morning was over he led the flock up to the
+furthest corner of the pasture in a mad scramble. And before the
+afternoon was over he took them on a brisk run to the bars.
+
+That made three times for the day.
+
+On each summer's day that followed Snowball played Follow My Leader
+oftener than he had the day before. So it happened that by the end of a
+week, when evening came, the older sheep were weary from all the running
+they had done, all the scrambling over the stone wall. For Snowball's
+favorite trick was to lead the sheep over the wall and into the tangle
+of raspberry bushes where Uncle Jerry Chuck lived.
+
+Snowball had soon learned that there was nothing to fear over there. He
+discovered that it was the noise the flock made when leaping down upon
+the ledge that alarmed Uncle Jerry Chuck. Drowsing in his underground
+chamber Uncle Jerry had thought there must be an earthquake. That was
+why his teeth chattered. That was why his nose twitched, when he peeped
+out of his doorway.
+
+As soon as Snowball learned all this he took great pains to land upon
+the ledge as heavily as he could. He liked to hear Uncle Jerry Chuck's
+teeth chatter; he liked to see Uncle Jerry shiver; he liked the sound of
+Uncle Jerry's squeaky voice asking what was the matter.
+
+So Snowball enjoyed his days in the pasture--or _in and out_ of it. In
+fact he enjoyed them more than anybody else in the flock. For the others
+began to grow tired of being led helter-skelter in a headlong flight.
+And the old folks especially became annoyed because Snowball took them
+so often over the stone wall.
+
+At last the old dame known as "Aunt Nancy," all hung with great folds of
+thick fleece, spoke her mind plainly to Snowball himself.
+
+"You're making a nuisance of yourself," she told him. "In all my days I
+never knew another youngster--a mere lamb!--to lead the flock. And here
+you're making us run our legs off every day! When I was your age we
+children never started a game of Follow My Leader. We _followed_ behind
+the rest of the flock. We never _led_."
+
+All this was a great surprise for Snowball. "D-don't you like the game?"
+he stammered.
+
+"The game's all right," the old lady said. "But nobody cares to play it
+a dozen times a day. And nobody enjoys having to clamber over the stone
+wall again and again."
+
+Snowball said nothing for a few minutes. He was thinking.
+
+"When I run, why do you follow me if you don't wish to?" he inquired at
+last.
+
+"I don't know," the old lady confessed. "Maybe I fell into the habit of
+following when I was young. Anyhow, I can't help myself now. I just have
+to go along with the others."
+
+Poor lady!
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+UNCLE JERRY OBJECTS
+
+
+Snowball really _meant_ to be kind to the elderly dame, Aunt Nancy, who
+had objected to being led on the wild goose chases in which he
+delighted.
+
+"I mustn't start another game of Follow My Leader," he said to himself.
+"Aunt Nancy says she can't help following. And for a person of her years
+it must be hard work to run."
+
+But Snowball soon learned that he had set himself a hard task. Soon
+afterward he found himself suddenly running. He hadn't _meant_ to run.
+Yet there he was, bounding along towards the stone wall as fast as he
+could jump! And the whole flock was following him, with Aunt Nancy
+puffing hard among the stragglers, doing her best to keep up.
+
+Over the wall went Snowball. Over the wall went all the rest. Aunt Nancy
+was the last to leap down upon the ledge where Snowball had stopped. And
+he could see that she was upset. He edged away from her. But she
+shouldered her friends aside (she was a huge person!) and walked
+straight up to him.
+
+"You're a spoiled child," she told Snowball. "Here you've gone and led
+us over this wall again! And I just told you I didn't want to run
+anywhere--over this wall least of all places!"
+
+Snowball felt much ashamed.
+
+"I--I didn't mean to do it," he faltered. "Something set my feet
+a-going. I _had_ to go along with them!"
+
+"Is that so?" she cried in dismay. "My goodness! You've been and gone
+and got the habit of being leader! And you can't stop! . . . I don't know
+what I'm going to do!" she wailed. "There'll be nothing left of me if
+this keeps up. I'll be nothing but fleece and bones if I have to run so
+much."
+
+Somehow her friends didn't seem alarmed. Aunt Nancy was very fat. In
+fact she was so very, very fat that nobody thought she _could_ waste
+away. And everybody smiled a little.
+
+But she didn't notice that. And then a squeaky voice piped up:
+
+"Is there an earthquake?"
+
+It was Uncle Jerry Chuck peeping out of his hole, with his teeth
+chattering so fast that it seemed as if they must all drop out of his
+mouth.
+
+"There's no earthquake," Aunt Nancy told him. "We just jumped off the
+wall upon this ledge--that's all."
+
+"I was sure there was an earthquake," he said. "And the last quake was
+the worst of all."
+
+There were more smiles then, for Aunt Nancy herself had been the last of
+the flock to plump down off the wall.
+
+"I wish--" said Uncle Jerry Chuck--"I wish, when you folks jump the
+wall, you'd pick out a different place. You disturb me a dozen times a
+day. I'm losing lots of sleep on your account. And if I continue to lose
+my rest I'll be nothing but fur and bones."
+
+Well, Uncle Jerry was fat, too. He looked as if it would do him a world
+of good to be thinner. But Aunt Nancy felt sorry for him.
+
+"Whoever leads the way over the wall must pick out another spot," she
+declared, looking straight at Snowball as she spoke. "It's a shame to
+annoy this gentleman."
+
+Everybody agreed with her good-naturedly. And Snowball said meekly that
+if he found himself running towards the wall he would try to turn his
+steps in another direction.
+
+No one said anything more about the matter. For somebody suddenly cried,
+"_Baa! baa!_" and scrambled over the wall.
+
+Of course the whole flock followed instantly, leaving Uncle Jerry Chuck
+to creep out of his hole and watch the last tail of all bob out of
+sight.
+
+It was Aunt Nancy's.
+
+"They're a queer lot," Uncle Jerry said aloud. He gave a long whistle.
+"I'm glad I'm not one of 'em," he added.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+AUNT NANCY'S PLAN
+
+
+All was quiet once more, after the race from the ledge near Uncle Jerry
+Chuck's home. The flock was feeding again. And if you hadn't noticed how
+Aunt Nancy Ewe puffed from her fast running you wouldn't have supposed
+there had just been a wild scramble over the stone wall and back.
+
+Aunt Nancy was still feeling sorry for Uncle Jerry Chuck, whose rest had
+been disturbed by the thud of hoofs above his head. "Remember!" she said
+to Snowball sternly. "Don't go near Uncle Jerry's home again!"
+
+"I won't!" he promised. "That is," he added, "I won't if I can help it.
+If I find myself running that way I may not be able to stop myself."
+
+Now, that sort of promise wasn't enough for Aunt Nancy.
+
+"You must turn aside!" she told Snowball. "Just make believe that
+there's a bear beyond the stone wall, instead of Uncle Jerry Chuck!
+_Then_--" she said--"_then_ you'll turn quickly enough!"
+
+"That's a good idea!" cried Snowball. "If only I don't forget it!"
+
+Aunt Nancy's words never left his mind all the rest of the morning. Just
+thinking about bears made Snowball frightfully uneasy. Whenever one of
+the flock happened to stray up behind him Snowball jumped, fearing for a
+moment that it was a bear.
+
+If anybody said _baa_ in his ear he leaped to one side, expecting the
+_baa_ to turn into a _woof!_
+
+He began to wish that Aunt Nancy hadn't told him of her idea.
+
+And all at once, when somebody came up behind him and gave him a nudge,
+Snowball started to run.
+
+"There's a bear behind me!" he thought.
+
+Of course the rest of the flock thought he was only playing Follow My
+Leader. So they followed him, every one of them.
+
+Snowball went bounding across the pasture towards the stone wall, headed
+straight for the spot where Uncle Jerry Chuck had his home. When he was
+only a few jumps away from the wall he glanced back. He saw then that
+there was no bear behind him. But he did notice Aunt Nancy Ewe, doing
+her best to keep up with the rest. And then Snowball remembered what
+she had said to him. If a bear--instead of Uncle Jerry Chuck--lived in
+the hole at the foot of the ledge!
+
+Well, that thought was enough to make Snowball swerve sharply to his
+right. And a few moments later he bobbed over the wall a little further
+up the hillside.
+
+Just beyond the wall grew a tangle of berry bushes. And into the midst
+of them Snowball jumped. And out of the midst of them, right in front of
+him, there rose up on his hind legs--a bear!
+
+Snowball gave a frightened, frantic blat. The next instant he was
+scrambling back over the wall.
+
+The foremost of the oncoming flock of sheep saw him. They couldn't think
+what had happened. Anyhow, they couldn't stop. Close behind them pressed
+the flock, all bunched together and hurrying blindly on.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+A TERRIBLE MIX-UP
+
+
+There was a terrible mix-up. Some sheep were trying to cross the stone
+wall in one direction. Some were trying to cross it in the other. And in
+the midst of the fleecy tangle Snowball struggled in vain. He found
+himself face to face with Aunt Nancy Ewe, who was so huge that he
+couldn't budge her. He pushed and shoved until she cried out, "Where are
+your manners, young man?"
+
+"I--I don't know," Snowball stammered. "Maybe I left them in the berry
+bushes, with the bear."
+
+[Illustration: Snowball Gave A Frantic Blat.
+
+_The Tale of Snowball Lamb._ _Page 87_]
+
+Well, the moment she heard the word _bear_ Aunt Nancy blatted at the
+top of her lungs. With a mighty heave she turned about on the top of the
+wall, sweeping Snowball off it as if he were nothing but a fly.
+
+He fell backwards among the raspberry bushes, fully expecting to be
+eaten by the bear. He shut his eyes and held his breath, and lay with
+his feet in the air, waiting for the bear to seize him.
+
+"Oh, dear!" he groaned. "I wonder if he'll begin with my head or my
+tail!"
+
+Just then he felt a terrible nip at the end of his tail.
+
+"He's begun! The bear has begun to eat me!" Snowball thought.
+
+As for the bear, he didn't say a single word. And that seemed odd.
+Somehow Snowball didn't quite like it because the bear didn't exclaim
+how nice and tender he was. His tail was still held fast. And that was
+as much as Snowball knew.
+
+At last he slowly opened his eyes. To his astonishment he saw no bear.
+In fact he saw nobody at all. For the last of Farmer Green's flock of
+sheep had vanished. And Snowball noticed, resting on the tip of his
+tail, a stone. Though he did not know it, the last sheep to leave had
+kicked it down upon him purely by accident.
+
+Snowball gave a _baa_ of surprise and relief. With a little effort he
+managed to jerk his tail from under the stone. Then he sprang to his
+feet. And since there was no knowing where the bear was, Snowball made
+all haste to get on the other side of the stone wall and join the flock
+of sheep once more.
+
+When Aunt Nancy saw him she did not act half as pleased as he had
+expected she would.
+
+"You got us into a pickle, young man!" she greeted him.
+
+"It seems to me," he replied, "that you are the one that made all the
+trouble. If you hadn't made me jump the wall----"
+
+"If _I_ hadn't made _you_----" Aunt Nancy interrupted. And turning to
+her companions she cried, "Did you ever hear anything like that in all
+your days?"
+
+And everybody said, "No!"
+
+And then somebody asked, "Where's the bear?"
+
+But nobody could answer that question.
+
+The only one that could have answered it was Cuffy Bear himself. And he
+was way up under the mountain--and still running.
+
+There wasn't a sheep in the flock that had been more frightened than
+he.
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+THE SWING
+
+
+As Snowball grew older he began to enjoy a fine, new sport. At least
+this sport was new to him. All the old rams had enjoyed it for years.
+But it was not until Snowball's horns began to grow that he became
+interested in having fun in this way.
+
+The new sport was _butting_. Snowball was careful not to butt any sheep
+that were much bigger than he was. For instance, he never even
+threatened to butt the black lamb, who was some months the older of the
+two. And Snowball didn't butt Johnnie Green; for Snowball was fond of
+him.
+
+Snowball didn't feel the same toward other boys. Other boys liked to
+tease him. A neighbor's boy called "Red" was the biggest tease of them
+all. He never missed a chance to bother Snowball--unless Johnnie Green
+objected.
+
+So it was only to be expected that Snowball should want to butt Red.
+More than once he had stolen up behind Red and butted him as hard as he
+could butt.
+
+At first Red only laughed. But as Snowball grew bigger--and heavier--Red
+no longer found anything to laugh at in Snowball's favorite sport.
+Instead of laughing, Red was more likely to go to rubbing himself where
+Snowball had struck him.
+
+"You'll have to get rid of this pet of yours!" Red said to Johnnie
+Green. "That is, you'll have to if you expect me to come to your place
+any longer."
+
+"I won't get rid of Snowball," Johnnie Green declared. "It serves you
+right if he butts you. You've teased him too often. I don't blame
+Snowball at all."
+
+"Send him away, now; or I'll go home," Red threatened.
+
+At that Johnnie Green drove Snowball behind the barn. But he wouldn't
+stay there. He came trotting back to the farmyard in no time.
+
+"Leave him alone! Don't pay any attention to him and he won't touch
+you!" Johnnie advised Red.
+
+However, that young man was uneasy. But he said nothing more about the
+matter. And turning to the swing under the big old apple tree he cried,
+"Come on, Johnnie! I'll swing you."
+
+Now, Johnnie Green had swung in that swing thousands of times. But it
+wasn't often anybody was willing to stand and push him until he went
+up, up, up, high among the leafy branches.
+
+"All right!" he said. "None of your tricks, now!"
+
+Red only grinned. And he began pushing Johnnie. He pushed so hard that
+for once Johnnie was satisfied. Once he thought the swing seat--with him
+on it--was going to turn completely over.
+
+The whole thing was most strange. It was most unusual. Red was always
+ready to be swung. Never had he been willing, before, to swing anybody
+else. So Johnnie decided to enjoy the fun while he could. Back and forth
+he rode in long sweeps.
+
+Meanwhile Snowball kept edging nearer. He was behind Red. And all the
+time Red kept a careful eye on him. But of this Johnnie Green saw
+nothing. For of course his back was turned to Red and to Snowball, too.
+
+There was no doubt that Snowball wanted to take a hand in the sport--or
+perhaps it would be better to say _take a horn_. Anyhow he lowered his
+head now and then, and shook it. And at last he stamped upon the ground.
+
+"Hang tight, Johnnie!" Red cried. "Here comes the biggest push of all!"
+And he gave Johnnie a mighty shove.
+
+Then Red waved his tattered hat almost in Snowball's face.
+
+That was a deadly insult. At least so Snowball thought. He gathered his
+legs beneath him. He shot forward.
+
+Already Johnnie Green had begun his long backward swing.
+
+For a moment you would have thought Red was going to get caught in a
+tight place. Johnnie Green was almost upon him. Snowball was almost upon
+him.
+
+And then Red jumped.
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+THE WRONG TARGET
+
+
+"Give me another push like that one!" Johnnie Green shouted from the
+swing.
+
+Little did he dream that Snowball was rushing towards him from behind,
+rushing with head lowered in his best butting style.
+
+Of course when the boy Red slipped out of the way there was only one
+thing that could happen. A moment after Johnnie shouted, Snowball struck
+the swing seat.
+
+Crash! Bang! Split! A terrible cry from Johnnie Green! And a second or
+two later a dull thud!
+
+The crash, bang and split came when Snowball's head met the swing seat.
+The thud followed when Johnnie hit the ground.
+
+Then all was quiet, except for a low moaning from the spot where Johnnie
+Green lay.
+
+Red had climbed spryly into a wagon which stood near-by. But he soon saw
+that he needn't have gone to that trouble. For Snowball plainly had no
+more butts left in him for the time being. He stood still in a dazed
+fashion and stared dully about him. The heavy oaken swing seat had been
+no soft mark to hit, sailing swiftly through the air with eighty pounds
+of boy upon it.
+
+Red had given one great shout. But now he too was very quiet. He jumped
+out of the wagon and ran to Johnnie Green, and lifted Johnnie's head.
+
+"Are you hurt, Johnnie?" he asked.
+
+But it was almost a minute before Johnnie Green could speak. It was
+almost as long as that before he could even breathe. He lay there
+gasping, with his hands clutched across his stomach. His eyes rolled
+about in the queerest way. If Red hadn't been frightened he would have
+laughed in Johnnie's face.
+
+At last Johnnie Green spoke.
+
+"Wh-wh-what happened?" he asked in a halting whisper. "Did the ropes
+break?"
+
+"No!" Red answered. "The ropes held--though it's a wonder."
+
+"Can't you tell me what happened?" Johnnie begged him. "If it wasn't the
+ropes, what was it?"
+
+"It was Snowball," said Red. "He butted you."
+
+"I don't believe it," cried Johnnie. "He never butted me in his whole
+life."
+
+Johnnie Green was sitting up now. And since he didn't seem to be much
+hurt the boy Red couldn't help grinning.
+
+"Look at that swing seat!" he exclaimed, pointing to the splintered bit
+of oak board near Johnnie. "You don't think--do you?--that I split that
+thing with _my_ head?"
+
+And then Johnnie Green just had to believe him. And Johnnie began to get
+angry, too.
+
+"You must have seen Snowball coming," he growled. "Why didn't you warn
+me?"
+
+Red swallowed a few times as he tried to think of a good answer.
+
+"Well," he replied finally, "I didn't _know_ he was going to butt you,
+did I? Didn't you just say yourself that he never _had_ butted you?"
+
+To all this Johnnie Green made no answer.
+
+"If you ask me," Red went on more easily, "I should say you were lucky.
+You were lucky to have that swing seat under you."
+
+Johnnie Green rose slowly to his feet.
+
+"There's something queer about this," he declared.
+
+"That's so," Red agreed. "There is. You'd just asked for another hard
+push. . . . And you got one--a harder one than I could have given
+you. . . . So I don't see what you're complaining about."
+
+And then he pretended that he didn't understand why Johnnie Green tried
+to hit him.
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+THE SWIMMING HOLE
+
+
+After the affair at the swing it was as much as a week before Johnnie
+Green saw anything of his neighbor Red.
+
+It was almost a week before Snowball felt like butting anybody. Even
+when other sheep bullied him Snowball edged away from them; and once he
+would have run into them head first.
+
+Somehow he couldn't forget that frightful jolt he had received when he
+knocked Johnnie Green out of the swing.
+
+At last, however, he tried a gentle butt one day against the soft side
+of one of his mates. And finding only pleasure, and no pain, in the
+trick he became once more one of the most active butters in Farmer
+Green's whole flock.
+
+Now, Johnnie Green had noticed that for a few days Snowball was
+unusually well behaved. And Snowball's gentleness did not please him.
+For Johnnie had hoped that sometime Snowball would butt the neighbor's
+boy Red.
+
+So Johnnie Green began to whistle a merry tune a little later, when he
+chanced to see Snowball charging the hired man as he crossed the
+pasture.
+
+Not long after that Johnnie Green went swimming. He found other boys at
+the swimming hole, which they had made by damming Broad Brook where it
+cut across the end of the meadow. Among the swimmers was the boy Red. It
+was the first time Johnnie had seen him since that day when Snowball
+butted Johnnie.
+
+When Johnnie spied Red in the water he thought for a moment or two that
+he would find Red's clothes on the bank and tie knots in them. That was
+a favorite trick of Red's--tying hard knots in other boys' clothes.
+Sometimes he even wet the knots, to make them harder to untie.
+
+But Johnnie Green decided that he wouldn't knot Red's clothes. Besides,
+Red seemed to be keeping a watchful eye on them.
+
+Johnnie slipped out of his own clothes quickly and soon he had dived off
+a flat rock and joined the boys in the swimming hole.
+
+Red had called "Hullo!" pleasantly enough. And then Johnnie was sure he
+said something in an undertone to the others. Anyhow they all grinned.
+And one boy cried, "I didn't expect to see you down here. I thought
+you'd be swinging. Wouldn't you rather swing than swim?"
+
+Johnnie Green gave a sickly smile.
+
+"Why didn't you bring your lamb with you?" another inquired. "Doesn't he
+follow you any more?"
+
+But Johnnie Green had ducked down where he couldn't hear and was
+swimming under water. When he came up everybody yelled at him. That is,
+everybody yelled except Red. _He_ looked very innocent, as if he didn't
+know what the joke was.
+
+Well, Johnnie Green had a good swim, anyhow. And the boys soon stopped
+teasing him. They had several swimming races, with a good deal of
+splashing mixed in. And there was so much fun that nobody noticed when
+Red crawled out upon the bank and slipped away behind the drooping
+willows that overhung the stream.
+
+The boys saw him plainly enough a little while afterward. Fully dressed
+he stood on the bank and jeered at them. And they knew what that meant.
+It meant that he had tied plenty of knots in everybody's clothes.
+
+All the boys except Johnnie Green yelled at him.
+
+"We'll fix you when we catch you!" they cried.
+
+As for Johnnie, he said never a word. In fact he didn't even look angry.
+On the contrary, he smiled. For he saw something that his friends had
+overlooked.
+
+Some distance behind Red Johnnie saw the willows part. And a white face
+peered out.
+
+It was Snowball's.
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+A DUCKING
+
+
+As he stood there on the great flat rock over the swimming hole Red
+never guessed that Snowball was behind him. But the swimmers soon
+noticed Snowball. And they all began to call to Red. They didn't care
+what they said, so long as they could keep Red so busy answering them
+that he wouldn't turn around and discover Snowball. They splashed about,
+and hooted, and on the whole made such an uproar that Red couldn't have
+heard the Muley Cow had she walked up behind him.
+
+Now, there was nothing that Red enjoyed any more than a wordy battle.
+Whenever a boy called him a name Red hurled a worse one back at him. It
+seemed as if he actually took pride in making blood curdling retorts.
+Certainly he didn't mean to leave, so long as anybody gave him an excuse
+for a jibe.
+
+Meanwhile Snowball had spied Red. And to Snowball he was a tempting
+sight. As Snowball drew nearer Red leaned forward with his hands upon
+his knees and taunted Johnnie Green: "You'd better keep that ole
+ram-lamb of yours out of my way! If he ever comes near me I'll----"
+
+Nobody ever found out what it was that Red meant to do. His threat stuck
+fast in his throat. For before he could utter it Snowball lowered his
+head and dashed at him. He gave Red a butt that lifted him off the rock
+and sent him sailing through the air with arms and legs waving wildly,
+to fall with a great splash into the swimming hole, where the water was
+deepest.
+
+There was a howl of delight. But it did not come from Red. He was
+somewhere between the surface of the water and the mucky bottom.
+
+Presently he appeared, spluttering and blowing and gasping. For once in
+his life Red had nothing to say in answer to the jibes and jeers of his
+mates.
+
+His hat was floating near him. Johnnie Green snatched it up, scooped it
+full of water and clapped it upon Red's head.
+
+Even then Red didn't say a word.
+
+But when Snowball looked blandly down at the boys from the great flat
+rock and said, "_Baa-a-a!_"--then Red spoke.
+
+He spoke his mind very freely and at some length. And he dared Johnnie
+to come out upon the bank with him.
+
+Johnnie Green promptly swam towards the bank where Snowball stood.
+
+"Not that side!" cried Red. "The other one!"
+
+But Johnnie remarked mildly that he supposed of course Red meant the
+side towards home. "You've got all your clothes on," said Johnnie. "You
+wouldn't want to have to cross the brook, later, and get them wet."
+
+Now, since Red's clothes were as wet as clothes could be, that seemed a
+very stupid remark. And Red told Johnnie Green--well, he told him a
+number of things. And then Red scrambled up the opposite bank from the
+one where Snowball stood, and started off, leaving a trail of water
+behind him.
+
+Johnnie Green and his friends forsook the swimming hole and took their
+clothes out upon the flat rock, which was warm in the sunshine. And
+there they spent a pleasant time untying the knots that Red had made in
+them. But first the boys made Johnnie Green drive Snowball away.
+
+"Red will catch it when he gets home," said one of them. "His father
+told him not to go swimming to-day."
+
+And not one of them said he was sorry.
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+A GREAT JOKE
+
+
+Farmer Green played a great joke on his flock of sheep. At least that
+was what Snowball thought. Since he was not really one of Farmer Green's
+flock, but belonged to Johnnie Green, he escaped this joke himself. And
+that was the reason why he was able to laugh so heartily at all his
+companions.
+
+[Illustration: Snowball and the Black Ram Met Head to Head.
+
+_The Tale of Snowball Lamb._ _Page 115_]
+
+The joke was this: Farmer Green and the hired man sheared the sheep.
+Close clipped as they were, the flock looked very odd. When Snowball
+caught his first glimpse of the young black ram, after Farmer Green had
+sheared him and turned him back into the pasture, minus his fleece,
+Snowball did not know him. Just for a moment Snowball thought the young
+black ram was a new kind of dog.
+
+"Old dog Spot won't care for this stranger," Snowball thought. He was
+about to warn the stranger to leave the farm at once, when he saw that
+he wasn't a dog after all. For Snowball noticed that he ate grass.
+
+"He's a queer creature. And whatever he may be, Spot's sure to dislike
+him. So I'll advise him to run along, anyhow," Snowball decided.
+
+So Snowball called out, "There's an old dog on this farm that will chase
+you if he catches you here. You'd better go away before he finds you."
+
+To Snowball's amazement the stranger looked at him boldly and said,
+"_Baa-a-a!_" Then, in a flash, Snowball knew that it was the voice of
+the young black ram, and no other.
+
+"What's happened to you?" Snowball cried, as soon as he could speak.
+
+"Haven't you heard the news?" the black ram asked him. "Didn't you know
+that Farmer Green and the hired man had begun to shear us?"
+
+"No!" Snowball exclaimed.
+
+"Well, they have," said the black ram. "And Farmer Green paid me the
+honor of shearing me himself, the first of all."
+
+"The honor!" Snowball repeated. "I don't see why you think it's an
+_honor_. Why, you're the queerest looking animal on the farm." And he
+began to laugh at the black ram, and blat at him.
+
+Now, the black ram was a peppery chap. He promptly lost his temper and
+stamped his feet and shook his head at Snowball.
+
+"I'll butt you for that!" he bawled.
+
+Once Snowball would have retreated. The black ram had always been both
+older and bigger than he. But now, though the black ram was still older,
+he looked smaller. That, of course, was because he had lost his thick
+fleece. He looked so much smaller that Snowball was no longer afraid of
+him.
+
+For the first time since he had come to the farm to live Snowball
+lowered his head at the black ram. And he didn't even wait for the black
+ram to make the first move. Instead, Snowball charged him.
+
+A moment later they met, head to head, with a shock that knocked
+Snowball off his feet.
+
+"My goodness!" Snowball exclaimed as he picked himself up. "You're
+bigger than you look."
+
+"Do you want any more?" the black ram demanded fiercely. "I've done you
+the honor to knock you down. Is once enough?"
+
+Snowball thought once was even too much. He left the black ram hurriedly
+and ran down toward the bars.
+
+Some very odd looking creatures were entering the pasture.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+A MYSTERY
+
+
+As Snowball drew near the pasture bars he forgot about the blow on the
+head that the black ram had given him. The strange sights that greeted
+his eyes drove all unpleasant things out of his mind.
+
+Snowball knew that the sheep he saw before him must be his old
+companions. But they were so changed, by shearing, that he couldn't tell
+who was who.
+
+He stood still and stared at them and grinned.
+
+"What amuses you, young man?" one of them asked him in a tart voice. The
+speaker was a big old dame. Even with her fleece closely cropped she
+looked undeniably fat. Yet she was wrinkled, too. And her neck had a
+scrawny look.
+
+Not until she spoke did Snowball guess that this person was Aunt Nancy
+Ewe. The moment he heard her voice he knew her. And he couldn't help
+laughing right in her face.
+
+"Don't be rude, young man!" Aunt Nancy scolded. "Anybody would think you
+had never seen a sheared flock before."
+
+"I haven't," Snowball answered. "You're all so funny that I can't keep
+my face straight."
+
+"Well," she said, "you'll have a chance to laugh at yourself a little
+later. For you'll certainly be sheared too."
+
+Snowball turned sober instantly.
+
+"Oh! Do you think so?" he cried.
+
+"They'll never let you keep that fleece on all summer," Aunt Nancy
+declared.
+
+She had scarcely finished speaking when Farmer Green came into the
+pasture. And Snowball was sure that Farmer Green looked directly at him.
+But before Snowball could make up his mind to run, Johnnie Green came
+hurrying after his father, and shouting.
+
+"Don't touch Snowball!" he called. "Don't you shear him!"
+
+"Why not?" his father asked him.
+
+"Because," said Johnnie, "I want to shear him myself. He belongs to me."
+
+"Very well!" his father replied. "Now we're here we may as well catch
+him. And you can begin shearing him. It will probably take you all day,
+because you've never sheared a sheep before."
+
+"I don't want to shear him now," said Johnnie. "I'm going fishing
+to-day. I'll do it to-morrow."
+
+Then Farmer Green and Johnnie went away. And they hadn't passed the
+bars when a great uproar broke out. The whole flock crowded around
+Snowball. And everybody except him said, "_Baa!_"
+
+"He laughs best who laughs last," Aunt Nancy remarked to him. "To-morrow
+we'll laugh best--at you!"
+
+But Snowball stood his ground and shook his head.
+
+"I'm not going to be sheared," he declared. "I guess you don't know what
+Johnnie Green's 'to-morrow' means. . . . It means 'never!'"
+
+Snowball really thought he was right about that.
+
+The next morning he found that he had been mistaken. For Johnnie Green
+came and cornered--and caught--him. And amid a chorus of _baas_ Johnnie
+led Snowball to the barn.
+
+"Let's wait at the bars until Johnnie brings Snowball back!" cried the
+young black ram, who bad knocked Snowball down the day before. "We want
+to give him a good welcome when he comes back without his fleece."
+
+"It's useless to wait," said Aunt Nancy. "You know Farmer Green said it
+would take Johnnie all day to shear him."
+
+Along toward noon the black ram came hurrying to the upper end of the
+pasture, where most of the sheep were feeding.
+
+"Snowball's here!" he blatted. "And he's sheared, too!"
+
+And just then Aunt Nancy Ewe came puffing and panting to join the
+others.
+
+"Snowball's back in the pasture!" she gasped. "And he isn't sheared at
+all!"
+
+Well, nobody knew what to think of that.
+
+
+
+
+XXIV
+
+HALF AND HALF
+
+
+All the sheep in the pasture hurried down the hillside toward the bars
+to look at Snowball. And soon dozens of disputes might have been heard:
+"He is!" "He isn't!" "He's sheared!" "He's not!" About half the flock
+were sure Johnnie Green had sheared Snowball; while the other half were
+just as sure that Snowball still wore his fleece.
+
+At last Aunt Nancy Ewe went close to Snowball and walked all the way
+around him. And when she joined her friends she announced that she had
+solved the mystery.
+
+"Snowball is sheared on one side only!" she exclaimed.
+
+It was true. And the moment the flock learned what had happened they set
+up a deafening _baaing_. "_Baa-ha-ha-ha-ha!_" they laughed. "Now who's a
+sight?" they asked Snowball. "Now who looks funny?"
+
+Poor Snowball couldn't say a word. He hung his head. For he was terribly
+ashamed of his appearance.
+
+"It's not my fault," he wailed at last. "When Johnnie Green had me half
+sheared that horrid boy Red came along and asked Johnnie to go fishing.
+And you know Johnnie Green! He can't miss a fishing trip. . . . He said
+he'd finish shearing me to-morrow."
+
+"Ha!" cried Aunt Nancy Ewe. And she flung at Snowball the very words he
+had used the day before. "Johnnie Green's 'to-morrow' means 'never!'"
+
+"Oh! I hope not!" cried Snowball. "That would be awful!"
+
+Somehow Snowball managed to get through that first dreadful day. But the
+following day he gave up all hope; for Johnnie Green never came near
+him. Nor did he come the next day, nor the next, nor the next.
+
+Little by little the sheep stopped teasing Snowball. Little by little he
+became used to having one side of him sheared and the other side thick
+with fleece.
+
+For some time he tried to keep as much out of sight as possible, grazing
+along the stone wall where he could bury himself in the bushes whenever
+one of the flock strayed near him. Or if he couldn't hide, he took pains
+to stand so that only one side of him should show.
+
+It was a long while before his neighbors stopped smiling when they saw
+him. But finally there were only two in the flock that couldn't seem to
+forget how ridiculous Snowball looked. These were the young black ram
+and old Aunt Nancy Ewe. And perhaps they can't be blamed, because
+Snowball had once openly made fun of them. When they were near him
+Snowball was very uncomfortable. But with the rest of the flock he felt
+more at his ease. And sometimes he even went so far as to say that he
+_enjoyed_ being half sheared.
+
+"On a cool day I find it pleasant to turn my clipped side toward the
+sun," he would remark. "And if there's a chilly wind I don't have to
+shiver. I let it blow against my fleecy side; and I never feel it."
+
+In two weeks Snowball was claiming that he _preferred_ to be only half
+sheared.
+
+Maybe that was true. Maybe he was only trying to make himself think it
+was. Anyhow, when Johnnie Green came into the pasture one day and called
+to him Snowball bounded down the grassy slope toward the bars.
+
+And when he came back to the pasture, some time later, he didn't look
+very different from his companions. One side of him, however, showed a
+pinkish tinge, because Johnnie Green had just sheared that side very
+close. And the fleece on his other side had already begun to grow out a
+bit.
+
+But Snowball didn't mind that. He had a pink nose, always. And he said
+that pink was his favorite color.
+
+And never again did he laugh at anybody, no matter how queer a person
+might look.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+SLUMBER-TOWN TALES
+
+(Trademark Registered.)
+
+By ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY
+
+        AUTHOR OF THE
+        SLEEPY-TIME TALES and TUCK-ME-IN TALES
+
+        =Colored Wrapper and Text Illustrations Drawn by HARRY L. SMITH=
+
+These are fascinating stories of farmyard folk for boys and girls from
+about four to eight years of age.
+
+
+THE TALE OF MISS KITTY CAT
+
+When Mrs. Rat saw Miss Kitty Cat washing her face, she knew it meant
+rain. And she wouldn't let her husband leave home without his umbrella.
+
+
+THE TALE OF HENRIETTA HEN
+
+Henrietta Hen was an empty-headed creature with strange notions. She
+never laid an egg without making a great fuss about it.
+
+
+THE TALE OF THE MULEY COW
+
+The Muley Cow belonged to Johnnie Green. He often milked her; and she
+seldom put her foot in the milk pail.
+
+
+THE TALE OF TURKEY PROUDFOOT
+
+A vain fellow was Turkey Proudfoot. He loved to strut about the farmyard
+and spread his tail, which he claimed was the most elegant one in the
+neighborhood.
+
+
+THE TALE OF PONY TWINKLEHEELS
+
+Pony Twinkleheels trotted so fast you could scarcely tell one foot from
+another. Everybody had to step lively to get out of his way.
+
+
+THE TALE OF OLD DOG SPOT
+
+Old dog Spot had a keen nose. He was always ready to chase the wild
+folk. And he always looked foolish when they got away from him.
+
+
+THE TALE OF GRUNTY PIG
+
+Grunty pig was a great trial to his mother. He found it hard not to put
+his feet right in the feeding trough at meal time.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+TUCK-ME-IN TALES
+
+(Trademark Registered)
+
+By ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY
+
+        AUTHOR OF THE
+        SLEEPY-TIME TALES and SLUMBER-TOWN TALES
+
+        =Colored Wrapper and Text Illustrations Drawn by HARRY L. SMITH=
+
+A delightful and unusual series of bird and insect stories for boys and
+girls from three to eight years old, or thereabouts.
+
+
+THE TALE OF JOLLY ROBIN
+
+Jolly Robin spreads happiness everywhere with his merry song.
+
+
+THE TALE OF OLD MR. CROW
+
+A wise bird was Mr. Crow. He'd laugh when any one tried to catch him.
+
+
+THE TALE OF SOLOMON OWL
+
+Solomon Owl looked so solemn that many people thought he knew
+everything.
+
+
+THE TALE OF JASPER JAY
+
+Jasper Jay was very mischievous. But many of his neighbors liked him.
+
+
+THE TALE OF RUSTY WREN
+
+Rusty Wren fought bravely to keep all strangers out of his house.
+
+
+THE TALE OF DADDY LONG-LEGS
+
+Daddy Long-Legs could point in all directions at once--with his
+different legs.
+
+
+THE TALE OF KIDDIE KATYDID
+
+He was a musical person and chanted all night during the autumn.
+
+
+THE TALE OF BETSY BUTTERFLY
+
+Betsy spent most of her time among the flowers.
+
+
+THE TALE OF BUSTER BUMBLEBEE
+
+Buster was clumsy and blundering, but was known far and wide.
+
+
+THE TALE OF FREDDIE FIREFLY
+
+Freddie had great sport dancing in the meadow and flashing his light.
+
+
+THE TALE OF BOBBY BOBOLINK
+
+Bobby had a wonderful voice and loved to sing.
+
+
+THE TALE OF CHIRPY CRICKET
+
+Chirpy loved to stroll about after dark and "chirp."
+
+
+THE TALE OF MRS. LADYBUG
+
+Mrs. Ladybug loved to find out what her neighbors were doing and to give
+them advice.
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
+
+Final page, "Crirpy" changed to "Chirpy" (Chirpy loved to stroll)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Snowball Lamb, by Arthur Bailey
+
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