The Tale of Snowball Lamb Part 8

s...o...b..ll really _meant_ to be kind to the elderly dame, Aunt Nancy, who had objected to being led on the wild goose chases in which he delighted.

"I mustn't start another game of Follow My Leader," he said to himself.

"Aunt Nancy says she can't help following. And for a person of her years it must be hard work to run."

But s...o...b..ll soon learned that he had set himself a hard task. Soon afterward he found himself suddenly running. He hadn't _meant_ to run.

Yet there he was, bounding along towards the stone wall as fast as he could jump! And the whole flock was following him, with Aunt Nancy puffing hard among the stragglers, doing her best to keep up.

Over the wall went s...o...b..ll. Over the wall went all the rest. Aunt Nancy was the last to leap down upon the ledge where s...o...b..ll had stopped. And he could see that she was upset. He edged away from her. But she shouldered her friends aside (she was a huge person!) and walked straight up to him.

"You're a spoiled child," she told s...o...b..ll. "Here you've gone and led us over this wall again! And I just told you I didn't want to run anywhere--over this wall least of all places!"

s...o...b..ll felt much ashamed.

"I--I didn't mean to do it," he faltered. "Something set my feet a-going. I _had_ to go along with them!"

"Is that so?" she cried in dismay. "My goodness! You've been and gone and got the habit of being leader! And you can't stop! . . . I don't know what I'm going to do!" she wailed. "There'll be nothing left of me if this keeps up. I'll be nothing but fleece and bones if I have to run so much."

Somehow her friends didn't seem alarmed. Aunt Nancy was very fat. In fact she was so very, very fat that n.o.body thought she _could_ waste away. And everybody smiled a little.

But she didn't notice that. And then a squeaky voice piped up:

"Is there an earthquake?"

It was Uncle Jerry Chuck peeping out of his hole, with his teeth chattering so fast that it seemed as if they must all drop out of his mouth.

"There's no earthquake," Aunt Nancy told him. "We just jumped off the wall upon this ledge--that's all."

"I was sure there was an earthquake," he said. "And the last quake was the worst of all."

There were more smiles then, for Aunt Nancy herself had been the last of the flock to plump down off the wall.

"I wish--" said Uncle Jerry Chuck--"I wish, when you folks jump the wall, you'd pick out a different place. You disturb me a dozen times a day. I'm losing lots of sleep on your account. And if I continue to lose my rest I'll be nothing but fur and bones."

Well, Uncle Jerry was fat, too. He looked as if it would do him a world of good to be thinner. But Aunt Nancy felt sorry for him.

"Whoever leads the way over the wall must pick out another spot," she declared, looking straight at s...o...b..ll as she spoke. "It's a shame to annoy this gentleman."

Everybody agreed with her good-naturedly. And s...o...b..ll said meekly that if he found himself running towards the wall he would try to turn his steps in another direction.

No one said anything more about the matter. For somebody suddenly cried, "_Baa! baa!_" and scrambled over the wall.

Of course the whole flock followed instantly, leaving Uncle Jerry Chuck to creep out of his hole and watch the last tail of all bob out of sight.

It was Aunt Nancy's.

"They're a queer lot," Uncle Jerry said aloud. He gave a long whistle.

"I'm glad I'm not one of 'em," he added.

XVI

AUNT NANCY'S PLAN

All was quiet once more, after the race from the ledge near Uncle Jerry Chuck's home. The flock was feeding again. And if you hadn't noticed how Aunt Nancy Ewe puffed from her fast running you wouldn't have supposed there had just been a wild scramble over the stone wall and back.

Aunt Nancy was still feeling sorry for Uncle Jerry Chuck, whose rest had been disturbed by the thud of hoofs above his head. "Remember!" she said to s...o...b..ll sternly. "Don't go near Uncle Jerry's home again!"

"I won't!" he promised. "That is," he added, "I won't if I can help it.

If I find myself running that way I may not be able to stop myself."

Now, that sort of promise wasn't enough for Aunt Nancy.

"You must turn aside!" she told s...o...b..ll. "Just make believe that there's a bear beyond the stone wall, instead of Uncle Jerry Chuck!

_Then_--" she said--"_then_ you'll turn quickly enough!"

"That's a good idea!" cried s...o...b..ll. "If only I don't forget it!"

Aunt Nancy's words never left his mind all the rest of the morning. Just thinking about bears made s...o...b..ll frightfully uneasy. Whenever one of the flock happened to stray up behind him s...o...b..ll jumped, fearing for a moment that it was a bear.

If anybody said _baa_ in his ear he leaped to one side, expecting the _baa_ to turn into a _woof!_

He began to wish that Aunt Nancy hadn't told him of her idea.

And all at once, when somebody came up behind him and gave him a nudge, s...o...b..ll started to run.

"There's a bear behind me!" he thought.

Of course the rest of the flock thought he was only playing Follow My Leader. So they followed him, every one of them.

s...o...b..ll went bounding across the pasture towards the stone wall, headed straight for the spot where Uncle Jerry Chuck had his home. When he was only a few jumps away from the wall he glanced back. He saw then that there was no bear behind him. But he did notice Aunt Nancy Ewe, doing her best to keep up with the rest. And then s...o...b..ll remembered what she had said to him. If a bear--instead of Uncle Jerry Chuck--lived in the hole at the foot of the ledge!

Well, that thought was enough to make s...o...b..ll swerve sharply to his right. And a few moments later he bobbed over the wall a little further up the hillside.

Just beyond the wall grew a tangle of berry bushes. And into the midst of them s...o...b..ll jumped. And out of the midst of them, right in front of him, there rose up on his hind legs--a bear!

s...o...b..ll gave a frightened, frantic blat. The next instant he was scrambling back over the wall.

The foremost of the oncoming flock of sheep saw him. They couldn't think what had happened. Anyhow, they couldn't stop. Close behind them pressed the flock, all bunched together and hurrying blindly on.

XVII