the still morning air.

"There's Collie!" cried the Lambs joyfully. "He's coming to take us
home. Let's bleat to help him find us more quickly." All the Lambs said,
"Baa! Baaa!" in their high, soft voices, and their mothers said "Baa!
Baaa!" more loudly; and the Bell-Wether added his "Baa! Baaa!" which was
so deep and strong that it sounded like a little, very little, clap of
thunder.

Collie came frisking along with his tail waving and his eyes gleaming.
He started the flock home, and scolded them and made fun of them all the
way, but they were now so happy that they didn't care what he said. When
they were safely in the home meadow again and the farmer had mended the
fence, Collie left them. As he turned to go, he called back one last
piece of advice.

"I'm a Shepherd Dog," he said, "and it's my work to take care of Sheep
when they can't take care of themselves, but I'd just like to be a
Bell-Wether for a little while. You wouldn't catch me doing every
foolish thing I felt like doing and getting all the flock into trouble
by following me! Nobody can do anything without somebody else doing it
too, and I wouldn't lead people into trouble and then say I didn't
think. Bow-wow-wow-wow!"

[Illustration: COLLIE AND THE BELL-WETHER.]

The Bell-Wether grumbled to himself, "Well, the rest needn't tag along
unless they want to. Pity if I can't jump a fence without everybody
following." But down in his heart he felt mean, for he knew that one who
leads should do right things.

THE FINE YOUNG RAT AND THE TRAP

The Mice were having a great frolic in the corn-crib. The farmer's man
had carelessly left a board leaning up against it in such a way that
they could walk right up and through one of the big cracks in the side.
It was the first time that some of them had ever been here. When the
farmer built the crib, he had put a tin pan, open side down, on top of
each of the wooden posts, and had then nailed the floor beams of the
crib through these pans. That had kept the hungry Mice from getting into
the corn.

This was a great day for them, and their gnawing-teeth would certainly
be worn down enough without giving them any extra wear. That, you know,
is one thing about which all Rats and Mice have to be very careful, for
their front teeth are growing all the time, and they have to gnaw hard
things every day to keep them from becoming too long.

There was only one thing that ever really troubled these Mice, and that