n undertone to the others. Anyhow they all grinned.
And one boy cried, "I didn't expect to see you down here. I thought
you'd be swinging. Wouldn't you rather swing than swim?"

Johnnie Green gave a sickly smile.

"Why didn't you bring your lamb with you?" another inquired. "Doesn't he
follow you any more?"

But Johnnie Green had ducked down where he couldn't hear and was
swimming under water. When he came up everybody yelled at him. That is,
everybody yelled except Red. _He_ looked very innocent, as if he didn't
know what the joke was.

Well, Johnnie Green had a good swim, anyhow. And the boys soon stopped
teasing him. They had several swimming races, with a good deal of
splashing mixed in. And there was so much fun that nobody noticed when
Red crawled out upon the bank and slipped away behind the drooping
willows that overhung the stream.

The boys saw him plainly enough a little while afterward. Fully dressed
he stood on the bank and jeered at them. And they knew what that meant.
It meant that he had tied plenty of knots in everybody's clothes.

All the boys except Johnnie Green yelled at him.

"We'll fix you when we catch you!" they cried.

As for Johnnie, he said never a word. In fact he didn't even look angry.
On the contrary, he smiled. For he saw something that his friends had
overlooked.

Some distance behind Red Johnnie saw the willows part. And a white face
peered out.

It was Snowball's.

XXI

A DUCKING

As he stood there on the great flat rock over the swimming hole Red
never guessed that Snowball was behind him. But the swimmers soon
noticed Snowball. And they all began to call to Red. They didn't care
what they said, so long as they could keep Red so busy answering them
that he wouldn't turn around and discover Snowball. They splashed about,
and hooted, and on the whole made such an uproar that Red couldn't have
heard the Muley Cow had she walked up behind him.

Now, there was nothing that Red enjoyed any more than a wordy battle.
Whenever a boy called him a name Red hurled a worse one back at him. It
seemed as if he actually took pride in making blood curdling retorts.
Certainly he didn't mean to leave, so long as anybody gave him an excuse
for a jibe.

Meanwhile Snowball had spied Red. And to Snowball he was a tempting
sight. As Snowball drew nearer Red leaned forward with his hands upon
his knees and taunted Johnnie Green: "You'd better keep that ole
ram-lamb of yours out o