"I wish you were going to the blacksmith's shop with me," Twinkleheels
told Ebenezer wistfully. "Somehow I'd feel better about being shod if
you were there."

"I shouldn't be surprised if I went along with you," Ebenezer told him.
"I cast a shoe yesterday. And the three that I have left are well worn."

And sure enough! Inside a half hour Farmer Green harnessed Ebenezer to
an open buggy. Johnnie Green brought Twinkleheels out of the barn by his
halter, led him up behind the buggy, and jumped in and sat beside his
father.

Then they started off.

"We're going to the village to get some new shoes," Twinkleheels called
to old dog Spot. "Why don't you come, too?"

"I would," Spot barked, "but I always follow right behind the buggy; and
you've gone and taken my place."

XVI

THE BLACKSMITH'S SHOP

Twinkleheels trotted proudly behind the buggy in which the old horse
Ebenezer was pulling Johnnie Green and his father towards the village.
Once Twinkleheels would have chafed at having to suit his pace to
Ebenezer's. He would have thought Ebenezer's gait too slow. But ever
since Ebenezer won a race with him in the pasture Twinkleheels had
thought more highly of his elderly friend. He knew that if Ebenezer
chose to take his time it wasn't because he couldn't have hurried had he
cared to.

They reached the blacksmith shop at last, where Ebenezer and
Twinkleheels were to get new shoes. Having been there many a time
before, Ebenezer was quite calm. Twinkleheels, however, was somewhat
uneasy. He had never visited a smithy. And he looked with wide, staring
eyes at the low, dingy building. On the threshold he drew back, as he
sniffed odors that were strange to him.

Johnnie Green spoke to him and urged him forward.

"I'll wait for Ebenezer," Twinkleheels decided. And he wouldn't budge
until Farmer Green led the old horse into the smithy. Then Twinkleheels
followed.

"Goodness!" he cried to Ebenezer a moment later. "This place is afire.
Let's get outside at once!" He had caught sight of a sort of flaming
table against one of the walls.

"Don't be alarmed!" Ebenezer said. "That's only the forge. That's where
the blacksmith heats the shoes red hot, so he can pound them into the
proper shape to fit the feet."

Twinkleheels had trembled with fear. And now he had scarcely recovered
from his fright when a terrible clanging clatter startled him. He
snorted and pulled back. He would have run out of the smithy had not