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Tale of Snowball Lamb

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<h2>XX</h2><h3>THE SWIMMING HOLE</h3> After the affair at the swing it was as much as a week before Johnnie Green saw anything of his neighbor Red. It was almost a week before Snowball felt like butting anybody. Even when other sheep bullied him Snowball edged away from them; and once he would have run into them head first. Somehow he couldn't forget that frightful jolt he had received when he knocked Johnnie Green out of the swing. At last, however, he tried a gentle butt one day against the soft side of one of his mates. And finding only pleasure, and no[103] pain, in the trick he became once more one of the most active butters in Farmer Green's whole flock. Now, Johnnie Green had noticed that for a few days Snowball was unusually well behaved. And Snowball's gentleness did not please him. For Johnnie had hoped that sometime Snowball would butt the neighbor's boy Red. So Johnnie Green began to whistle a merry tune a little later, when he chanced to see Snowball charging the hired man as he crossed the pasture. Not long after that Johnnie Green went swimming. He found other boys at the swimming hole, which they had made by damming Broad Brook where it cut across the end of the meadow. Among the swimmers was the boy Red. It was the first time Johnnie had seen him since that day when Snowball butted Johnnie.[104] When Johnnie spied Red in the water he thought for a moment or two that he would find Red's clothes on the bank and tie knots in them. That was a favorite trick of Red's—tying hard knots in other boys' clothes. Sometimes he even wet the knots, to make them harder to untie. But Johnnie Green decided that he wouldn't knot Red's clothes. Besides, Red seemed to be keeping a watchful eye on them. Johnnie slipped out of his own clothes quickly and soon he had dived off a flat rock and joined the boys in the swimming hole. Red had called "Hullo!" pleasantly enough. And then Johnnie was sure he said something in an 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.[105] 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.[106] 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.[107] <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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