a chase.

Much to the black lamb's disgust Snowball would start for the bars the
moment Johnnie appeared there. "Johnnie wants to give me a treat!"
Snowball would exclaim. "There's cracked corn waiting for me!" And off
he would go.

Strange as it may seem, Johnnie tired of the circus tricks before
Snowball did. It wasn't long before several days would go by without
Johnnie's once holding up a hoop for Snowball to jump through. And often
Snowball would moon about the farmyard _wishing_ that Johnnie would do
that very thing.

"I hope the cracked corn isn't getting low," said Snowball to himself.
And he cried, "_Ba-a-a-a-a!_" But Johnnie Green paid no heed to him.
Though Johnnie was at that very moment in the swing he never once looked
at Snowball as he roamed mournfully about.

So Snowball crossed the road and strolled up the steep bank opposite the
farmhouse. And having nothing better to do he was about to stroll down
again when he spied something that made him stop short.

Was that a paper-covered hoop that he saw, right there at the top of the
bank? He wondered. It was round. And it was certainly covered with
something that looked like paper.

For a moment Snowball thought he would walk around the hoop--if it was
one--and examine it. He couldn't see anybody holding it up on edge. But
there it was, just waiting for somebody to come along and jump through
it!

"It's a hoop!" Snowball muttered to himself. "There's no doubt about
that." And lowering his head he ran at the hoop--and jumped.

There was a splitting sound and a crash, both at the same time.

Instead of bursting through a thin paper shell and clearing the hoop
neatly Snowball found himself wedged inside something. Though he didn't
know it, he had butted the end of a barrel, knocking in its head and
plunging headlong inside it.

Meanwhile Johnnie Green had stopped swinging. He looked across the road
just in time to see the barrel totter on the edge of the steep bank. Not
only totter; but begin to roll down hill!

Out of the barrel stuck two woolly legs, both kicking frantically.

"What in the world----" Johnnie Green exclaimed. He leaped from the
swing and ran towards the strange sight. But he was too late to help.

The barrel fast gathered headway. It crossed the road like some live
thing, to bring up against the farmhouse with a terrific smash.

Instantly the barrel fell into a dozen pieces as its staves caved in.
And out of the wreck rose Sno