he Badger who told Peter Rabbit the story of the great
Ram who was the first of all the wild Sheep who live on the tops of the
mountains bounding the great plains of the Far West on which Digger was
born. It happened that Farmer Brown's flock of Sheep were grazing in the
Old Pasture in plain sight of Digger as he sat on his doorstep watching
his shadow grow longer. At the head of the flock was a Ram whose horns
curved around in almost a circle, and whom Peter Rabbit often had
admired.

Peter happened along as Digger sat there on his doorstep watching his
shadow grow longer, so he sat down at a safe and respectful distance and
helped Digger watch his shadow grow longer. Peter delights in doing
things like this, because it isn't hard work at all. It is only when
there is real work concerned that Peter loses interest. A lot of people
are just like Peter in this respect.

Peter gazed over at the Old Pasture and he, too, saw Farmer Brown's
Sheep and the big Ram with the curving horns at his head. For a long
time Peter had greatly admired those horns, though he never had told any
one so. He had admired those horns because they were different from any
other horns Peter ever had seen. They looked perfectly useless for
fighting because they curved so that the points never could be made to
hurt any one, but just the same Peter admired them. Now as he watched he
spoke aloud, without thinking what he was doing.

"I wish I had a pair of horns like those," said he wistfully.

Digger the Badger stopped watching his shadow, and turned to stare at
Peter. Then he laughed until finally he choked. Peter looked at him in
surprise.

"What's the matter with you, Mr. Badger?" asked he. "What is there to
laugh at?"

"Only you, Peter. Only you," replied Digger faintly, for he had laughed
so hard that he had almost lost his voice. "I am afraid you would find a
pair of horns like those rather heavy, Peter, rather heavy."

Peter grinned. "Of course I didn't really mean that," said he. "Of
course not. I was just thinking how nice it would be to have such fine
horns, if one were big enough to have horns. I don't believe there are
any other such horns in all the Great World."

"And that shows how little you know about the Great World, Peter,"
retorted Digger the Badger.

"Did you ever see such horns before?" demanded Peter.

"No, I never did," confessed Digger, "but I've heard my grandfather
tell of Sheep that live on the tops of the great