at uproar broke out. The whole flock crowded around
Snowball. And everybody except him said, "_Baa!_"

"He laughs best who laughs last," Aunt Nancy remarked to him. "To-morrow
we'll laugh best--at you!"

But Snowball stood his ground and shook his head.

"I'm not going to be sheared," he declared. "I guess you don't know what
Johnnie Green's 'to-morrow' means. . . . It means 'never!'"

Snowball really thought he was right about that.

The next morning he found that he had been mistaken. For Johnnie Green
came and cornered--and caught--him. And amid a chorus of _baas_ Johnnie
led Snowball to the barn.

"Let's wait at the bars until Johnnie brings Snowball back!" cried the
young black ram, who bad knocked Snowball down the day before. "We want
to give him a good welcome when he comes back without his fleece."

"It's useless to wait," said Aunt Nancy. "You know Farmer Green said it
would take Johnnie all day to shear him."

Along toward noon the black ram came hurrying to the upper end of the
pasture, where most of the sheep were feeding.

"Snowball's here!" he blatted. "And he's sheared, too!"

And just then Aunt Nancy Ewe came puffing and panting to join the
others.

"Snowball's back in the pasture!" she gasped. "And he isn't sheared at
all!"

Well, nobody knew what to think of that.

XXIV

HALF AND HALF

All the sheep in the pasture hurried down the hillside toward the bars
to look at Snowball. And soon dozens of disputes might have been heard:
"He is!" "He isn't!" "He's sheared!" "He's not!" About half the flock
were sure Johnnie Green had sheared Snowball; while the other half were
just as sure that Snowball still wore his fleece.

At last Aunt Nancy Ewe went close to Snowball and walked all the way
around him. And when she joined her friends she announced that she had
solved the mystery.

"Snowball is sheared on one side only!" she exclaimed.

It was true. And the moment the flock learned what had happened they set
up a deafening _baaing_. "_Baa-ha-ha-ha-ha!_" they laughed. "Now who's a
sight?" they asked Snowball. "Now who looks funny?"

Poor Snowball couldn't say a word. He hung his head. For he was terribly
ashamed of his appearance.

"It's not my fault," he wailed at last. "When Johnnie Green had me half
sheared that horrid boy Red came along and asked Johnnie to go fishing.
And you know Johnnie Green! He can't miss a fishing trip. . . . He said
he'd finish shearing me to-morrow.