"Well, they have," said the black ram. "And Farmer Green paid me the honor of shearing me himself, the first of all."

"The honor!" s...o...b..ll repeated. "I don't see why you think it's an _honor_. Why, you're the queerest looking animal on the farm." And he began to laugh at the black ram, and blat at him.

Now, the black ram was a peppery chap. He promptly lost his temper and stamped his feet and shook his head at s...o...b..ll.

"I'll b.u.t.t you for that!" he bawled.

Once s...o...b..ll would have retreated. The black ram had always been both older and bigger than he. But now, though the black ram was still older, he looked smaller. That, of course, was because he had lost his thick fleece. He looked so much smaller that s...o...b..ll was no longer afraid of him.

For the first time since he had come to the farm to live s...o...b..ll lowered his head at the black ram. And he didn't even wait for the black ram to make the first move. Instead, s...o...b..ll charged him.

A moment later they met, head to head, with a shock that knocked s...o...b..ll off his feet.

"My goodness!" s...o...b..ll exclaimed as he picked himself up. "You're bigger than you look."

"Do you want any more?" the black ram demanded fiercely. "I've done you the honor to knock you down. Is once enough?"

s...o...b..ll thought once was even too much. He left the black ram hurriedly and ran down toward the bars.

Some very odd looking creatures were entering the pasture.

XXIII

A MYSTERY

As s...o...b..ll drew near the pasture bars he forgot about the blow on the head that the black ram had given him. The strange sights that greeted his eyes drove all unpleasant things out of his mind.

s...o...b..ll knew that the sheep he saw before him must be his old companions. But they were so changed, by shearing, that he couldn't tell who was who.

He stood still and stared at them and grinned.

"What amuses you, young man?" one of them asked him in a tart voice. The speaker was a big old dame. Even with her fleece closely cropped she looked undeniably fat. Yet she was wrinkled, too. And her neck had a scrawny look.

Not until she spoke did s...o...b..ll guess that this person was Aunt Nancy Ewe. The moment he heard her voice he knew her. And he couldn't help laughing right in her face.

"Don't be rude, young man!" Aunt Nancy scolded. "Anybody would think you had never seen a sheared flock before."

"I haven't," s...o...b..ll answered. "You're all so funny that I can't keep my face straight."

"Well," she said, "you'll have a chance to laugh at yourself a little later. For you'll certainly be sheared too."

s...o...b..ll turned sober instantly.

"Oh! Do you think so?" he cried.

"They'll never let you keep that fleece on all summer," Aunt Nancy declared.

She had scarcely finished speaking when Farmer Green came into the pasture. And s...o...b..ll was sure that Farmer Green looked directly at him.

But before s...o...b..ll could make up his mind to run, Johnnie Green came hurrying after his father, and shouting.

"Don't touch s...o...b..ll!" he called. "Don't you shear him!"

"Why not?" his father asked him.

"Because," said Johnnie, "I want to shear him myself. He belongs to me."

"Very well!" his father replied. "Now we're here we may as well catch him. And you can begin shearing him. It will probably take you all day, because you've never sheared a sheep before."

"I don't want to shear him now," said Johnnie. "I'm going fishing to-day. I'll do it to-morrow."

Then Farmer Green and Johnnie went away. And they hadn't pa.s.sed the bars when a great uproar broke out. The whole flock crowded around s...o...b..ll. 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 s...o...b..ll 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!'"

s...o...b..ll 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 s...o...b..ll to the barn.

"Let's wait at the bars until Johnnie brings s...o...b..ll back!" cried the young black ram, who bad knocked s...o...b..ll 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.

"s...o...b..ll's here!" he blatted. "And he's sheared, too!"

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

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

Well, n.o.body knew what to think of that.

XXIV

HALF AND HALF