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