one to plough his way out to the barn that
morning. He burst into the barn and stamped the snow off his feet. And
Twinkleheels stamped, too, because he wanted something to eat.

Johnnie fed Twinkleheels and Ebenezer and the bays. He was shaking some
hay; in front of the Muley Cow (who belonged to him) when his father
arrived.

"The worst storm of the winter!" Farmer Green observed. "We'll have work
enough after this, breaking the roads out."

"I'll help," Johnnie said. "I'll take Twinkleheels and work hard."

"I suppose," said his father, "we ought to get the road to the
schoolhouse cleared first."

"Oh, no!" cried Johnnie. "Let's leave that till the last."

"If we left it for you and Twinkleheels to clear, you wouldn't get back
to school before spring," Farmer Green declared.

Twinkleheels had been listening eagerly to all this.

"Now, I wonder what Farmer Green means by that," he muttered. "I hope he
doesn't think I can't get through the drifts as well as anybody. I can
certainly make my way through the snow better than those clumsy old
oxen, Bright and Broad."

XIII

FUN AND GRUMBLES

It stopped snowing at last and the weather turned clear and crisp. The
sun came out. And so did Johnnie Green, riding on Twinkleheels. He did
not get far from the barn, however. Where the snow wasn't piled in
drifts high above Twinkleheels' head it reached up on his fat sides. He
floundered about the farmyard for a time. And, falling once, he dumped
Johnnie Green neatly into a drift, head first.

The spill didn't hurt Johnnie in the least. But snow went up the inside
of his sleeves, and down his neck, and into his eyes and ears and even
his mouth.

He jumped up spluttering. And Twinkleheels jumped at the same time. He
tried to run. But he could make little headway in the snow, and Johnnie
caught his bridle rein and stopped him.

"You'd better put that pony back in the barn," Farmer Green called from
the woodshed door. "After I yoke up Bright and Broad and break out the
drive to the road you can ride Twinkleheels again. He might cut himself
in this heavy going."

Twinkleheels sniffed as he heard what Farmer Green said.

"This is all nonsense," he grumbled to the old horse Ebenezer as Johnnie
led him into his stall. "Farmer Green doesn't know what he's talking
about. I'm a hundred times sprier than Bright. And I'm a hundred times
sprier than Broad. That makes me two hundred times sprier than both of
them. It'