[Illustration: Snowball and the Black Ram Met Head to Head.

_The Tale of Snowball Lamb._ _Page 115_]

The joke was this: Farmer Green and the hired man sheared the sheep.
Close clipped as they were, the flock looked very odd. When Snowball
caught his first glimpse of the young black ram, after Farmer Green had
sheared him and turned him back into the pasture, minus his fleece,
Snowball did not know him. Just for a moment Snowball thought the young
black ram was a new kind of dog.

"Old dog Spot won't care for this stranger," Snowball thought. He was
about to warn the stranger to leave the farm at once, when he saw that
he wasn't a dog after all. For Snowball noticed that he ate grass.

"He's a queer creature. And whatever he may be, Spot's sure to dislike
him. So I'll advise him to run along, anyhow," Snowball decided.

So Snowball called out, "There's an old dog on this farm that will chase
you if he catches you here. You'd better go away before he finds you."

To Snowball's amazement the stranger looked at him boldly and said,
"_Baa-a-a!_" Then, in a flash, Snowball knew that it was the voice of
the young black ram, and no other.

"What's happened to you?" Snowball cried, as soon as he could speak.

"Haven't you heard the news?" the black ram asked him. "Didn't you know
that Farmer Green and the hired man had begun to shear us?"

"No!" Snowball exclaimed.

"Well, they have," said the black ram. "And Farmer Green paid me the
honor of shearing me himself, the first of all."

"The honor!" Snowball repeated. "I don't see why you think it's an
_honor_. Why, you're the queerest looking animal on the farm." And he
began to laugh at the black ram, and blat at him.

Now, the black ram was a peppery chap. He promptly lost his temper and
stamped his feet and shook his head at Snowball.

"I'll butt you for that!" he bawled.

Once Snowball would have retreated. The black ram had always been both
older and bigger than he. But now, though the black ram was still older,
he looked smaller. That, of course, was because he had lost his thick
fleece. He looked so much smaller that Snowball was no longer afraid of
him.

For the first time since he had come to the farm to live Snowball
lowered his head at the black ram. And he didn't even wait for the black
ram to make the first move. Instead, Snowball charged him.

A moment later they met, head to head, with a shock that knocked
Snowball off his feet.

"My goodness!"