The Tale of Snowball Lamb Part 2

"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 s...o...b..ll! 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 s...o...b..ll 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 s...o...b..ll 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 s...o...b..ll found himself turned into the pasture where Farmer Green's flock of sheep were pa.s.sing 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

s...o...b..ll 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 s...o...b..ll, 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," s...o...b..ll informed old Mr. Crow one day.

The old gentleman c.o.c.ked his head on one side and looked at s...o...b..ll.

"How do you know you are?" he demanded. He was a great one for asking questions.

"The Muley Cow told me," s...o...b..ll 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."

s...o...b..ll 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 a.s.sured 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."

s...o...b..ll 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 s...o...b..ll 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," s...o...b..ll 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,'" s...o...b..ll 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

s...o...b..ll 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 hoa.r.s.e voice that he was going to stay as far from the pasture as he could get.

"What's the matter?" s...o...b..ll asked Mr. Crow. "Don't you like salt?"

Mr. Crow made a wry face.

"No, I don't!" he spluttered.