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 s...o...b..ll 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," s...o...b..ll stammered. "Maybe I left them in the berry bushes, with the bear."
[Ill.u.s.tration: s...o...b..ll Gave A Frantic Blat.
_The Tale of s...o...b..ll 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 s...o...b..ll 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!" s...o...b..ll thought.
As for the bear, he didn"t say a single word. And that seemed odd.
Somehow s...o...b..ll 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 s...o...b..ll knew.
At last he slowly opened his eyes. To his astonishment he saw no bear.
In fact he saw n.o.body at all. For the last of Farmer Green"s flock of sheep had vanished. And s...o...b..ll 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.
s...o...b..ll 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, s...o...b..ll 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 n.o.body 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 s...o...b..ll 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 s...o...b..ll"s horns began to grow that he became interested in having fun in this way.
The new sport was _b.u.t.ting_. s...o...b..ll was careful not to b.u.t.t any sheep that were much bigger than he was. For instance, he never even threatened to b.u.t.t the black lamb, who was some months the older of the two. And s...o...b..ll didn"t b.u.t.t Johnnie Green; for s...o...b..ll was fond of him.
s...o...b..ll 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 s...o...b..ll--unless Johnnie Green objected.
So it was only to be expected that s...o...b..ll should want to b.u.t.t Red.
More than once he had stolen up behind Red and b.u.t.ted him as hard as he could b.u.t.t.
At first Red only laughed. But as s...o...b..ll grew bigger--and heavier--Red no longer found anything to laugh at in s...o...b..ll"s favorite sport.
Instead of laughing, Red was more likely to go to rubbing himself where s...o...b..ll 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 s...o...b..ll," Johnnie Green declared. "It serves you right if he b.u.t.ts you. You"ve teased him too often. I don"t blame s...o...b..ll at all."
"Send him away, now; or I"ll go home," Red threatened.
At that Johnnie Green drove s...o...b..ll 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 s...o...b..ll 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 s...o...b..ll, too.
There was no doubt that s...o...b..ll 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 s...o...b..ll"s face.
That was a deadly insult. At least so s...o...b..ll thought. He gathered his legs beneath him. He shot forward.
Already Johnnie Green had begun his long backward swing.