Chapter 2

"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----"

"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.