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."
"Ha!" cried Aunt Nancy Ewe. And she flung at Snowball the very words he had used the day before. "Johnnie Green's 'to-morrow' means 'never!'"
"Oh! I hope not!" cried Snowball. "That would be awful!"
Somehow Snowball managed to get through that first dreadful day. But the following day he gave up all hope; for Johnnie Green never came near him. Nor did he come the next day, nor the next, nor the next.
Little by little the sheep stopped teasing Snowball. Little by little he became used to having one side of him sheared and the other side thick with fleece.
For some time he tried to keep as much out of sight as possible, grazing along the stone wall where he could bury himself in the bushes whenever one of the flock strayed near him. Or if he couldn't hide, he took pains to stand so that only one side of him should show.
It was a long while before his neighbors stopped smiling when they saw him. But finally there were only two in the flock that couldn't seem to forget how ridiculous Snowball looked. These were the young black ram and old Aunt Nancy Ewe. And perhaps they can't be blamed, because Snowball had once openly made fun of them. When they were near him Snowball was very uncomfortable. But with the rest of the flock he felt more at his ease. And sometimes he even went so far as to say that he enjoyed being half sheared.
"On a cool day I find it pleasant to turn my clipped side toward the sun," he would remark. "And if there's a chilly wind I don't have to shiver. I let it blow against my fleecy side; and I never feel it."
In two weeks Snowball was claiming that he preferred to be only half sheared.
Maybe that was true. Maybe he was only trying to make himself think it was. Anyhow, when Johnnie Green came into the pasture one day and called to him Snowball bounded down the grassy slope toward the bars.
And when he came back to the pasture, some time later, he didn't look very different from his companions. One side of him, however, showed a pinkish tinge, because Johnnie Green had just sheared that side very close. And the fleece on his other side had already begun to grow out a bit.
But Snowball didn't mind that. He had a pink nose, always. And he said that pink was his favorite color.
And never again did he laugh at anybody, no matter how queer a person might look.
THE END.
