reached it all the other pupils burst into a shout.

Johnnie looked around. And there, trotting across the floor, was
Snowball! 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 Snowball 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 Snowball 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 Snowball found himself turned into the pasture where
Farmer Green's flock of sheep were passing 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

Snowball 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 Snowball, Mr. Crow
often went out of his way to stop and talk with him.

That wa