The Tale of Pony Twinkleheels | Page 3

got you. And
you'll never lead me such a merry chase again."
Twinkleheels acted as mild as the Muley Cow. He stood perfectly still
while Johnnie slipped the halter on his head and buckled it. Then he
followed Johnnie to the pasture bars, down the lane, and into the barn.
"I got him!" Johnnie called to his father.

"I thought you would," said Farmer Green. "That pony likes oats too
well to resist a taste of them."
After that Johnnie had little trouble catching Twinkleheels in the
pasture. Somehow the sound of the shaking oats, and the sight of the
grain measure, seemed to put all thought of the halter out of his head.
To be sure, once Johnnie forgot what he was doing and hid the oats
behind his back, while he held the halter up in front of him and shook
that at Twinkleheels. And it was an hour, that time, before
Twinkleheels would let Johnnie come near him.
But that was a mistake.
One day Johnnie Green was in a great hurry. He was going to ride over
the hill, to play with some friends. Running to the barn, he caught up
Twinkleheels' halter and snatched the four-quart measure off the top of
a barrel.
"I won't stop to take any oats to-day," Johnnie said to himself. "I'll fool
Twinkleheels. It will be a good joke on him when he puts his nose into
the measure and finds it empty."
Johnnie Green hurried to the pasture. At his first whistle Twinkleheels
pricked up his ears. He had come to think only of one thing when that
whistle sounded in the pasture. That one thing was oats. And now
Twinkleheels squealed and kicked and tore down the hillside to the
bars, where Johnnie Green stood and waved the grain measure in the
air.
Twinkleheels had long since given up stopping to listen for the swish of
the oats inside the measure. He came trotting up to Johnnie and reached
his head out for the treat that he had always found waiting for him.
He thrust his nose into the measure. There was something wrong. He
blew into the measure. Then he snorted and drew back. And if Johnnie
Green hadn't been spry Twinkleheels would have given him the slip.

But Johnnie grabbed him and had the halter on him in a twinkling.
"I fooled you this time," said Johnnie as he turned to let down the
pasture bars.
Twinkleheels hung his head.

IV
THE CHEATER CHEATED
Johnnie Green thought he had done something quite clever. He had
coaxed Twinkleheels up to him in the pasture with an empty grain
measure.
Twinkleheels, however, had his own ideas about the matter.
"This boy," he said to old dog Spot, "has cheated me."
Spot lay on the barn floor, looking on while Johnnie Green harnessed
Twinkleheels.
"This boy," Twinkleheels explained, "made me think he had some oats
for me. He caught me unfairly."
Old dog Spot grinned. "Can't you take a joke?" he asked.
"This is no joke," Twinkleheels grumbled. "Johnnie is going to drive
me over the hill. They're going to have a ball game over there. And you
know folks are always in a hurry when they're going to a ball
game--especially boys. And they're in the most terrible hurry of all
when somebody else has to get them there. If Johnny Green had to
walk, maybe he'd think there was time to stop and rest now and then."
Old Spot recalled the day when he followed Twinkleheels to the village
and back.

"I don't see what you're grumbling about," he remarked. "I've run
behind your little buggy and you kept snapping the miles off as if it was
the easiest thing you did."
"You'd grumble yourself if you were cheated of a taste of oats that you
were expecting," said Twinkleheels.
"I never eat oats," Spot retorted.
"Then you don't know what's good," Twinkleheels declared. "After
getting your mouth all made up for oats, it's pretty disappointing to
chew on nothing more appetizing than an iron bit."
Old dog Spot snickered.
Twinkleheels stamped one of his tiny feet upon the barn floor.
"It will never happen again!" he cried.
Old Spot gave him a sharp look.
"I hope," he said, "you don't intend to hurt Johnnie Green. I hope you
aren't planning to run away with him."
"No!" Twinkleheels assured him. "I'm too well trained to run away,
though I must say Johnnie Green deserves a spill. But of course I
wouldn't do such a thing as to tip the buggy over. What I have in mind
is something quite different. It's harmless." And that was all he would
say.
He took Johnnie Green to the ball game. And he brought him home
again. He was so well-behaved that when