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Updated: May 29, 2025
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.
"I'll help," Johnnie said. "I'll take Twinkleheels and work hard." "I suppose," said his father, "we ought to get the road to the schoolhouse cleared first." "Oh, no!" cried Johnnie. "Let's leave that till the last." "If we left it for you and Twinkleheels to clear, you wouldn't get back to school before spring," Farmer Green declared. Twinkleheels had been listening eagerly to all this.
He would have run out of the smithy had not Johnnie Green tied his halter rope to a ring in the wall. "Don't do that!" the old horse Ebenezer called to him. "There's no danger. That noise is nothing to be afraid of. It's only the smith pounding a horseshoe on his anvil." Twinkleheels looked relieved and just a bit sheepish.
And a little distance up the road Farmer Green and Bright and Broad were battling with the drifts. Outside the barn, in the snow-covered farmyard, Johnnie Green mounted Twinkleheels and rode him beyond the gate, where he could watch the fun up the road. Yoked to a sort of plough, Bright and Broad, the oxen, tore through the piled-up snow and threw it to either side in great ridges.
Back toward the barn he turned at last. As he climbed over the fence he looked at Twinkleheels, who stood on a knoll and regarded him pleasantly. "I'll get you yet!" Johnnie called to him. "You needn't think you can beat me!" Twinkleheels dropped his head, flung his hind feet into the air twice, and galloped off. He was sorry that Johnnie Green had stopped chasing him.
The bays were a glum appearing pair. Twinkleheels tried to speak to them, but the thrashing machine made such a racket that they couldn't hear him whinny; and he couldn't catch their eyes. They wouldn't look at him. A stream of oats was pouring out of the grain spout. Johnnie Green dismounted. Picking up a handful of the newly thrashed oats, he fed Twinkleheels.
Soon Twinkleheels could hear Farmer Green shouting "Gee!" and "Haw!" "There!" Twinkleheels called to the two bays. "There's Farmer Green talking to Bright and Broad. I hope they're not helpless already." The bays snickered. "Don't laugh!" Twinkleheels begged them. "It's not funny. It would be awful for them to spend the rest of the winter in a snow bank."
Twinkleheels looked over the blacksmith's shoulder. And what he saw gave him a start. "Great green grass!" he cried to Ebenezer. "Is he going to cut my foot off?" "No, indeed!" Ebenezer answered. "The blacksmith always pares my feet a bit when he fits new shoes. He may have to trim yours a good deal, because you've never worn shoes and your feet have never been pared."
You won't be half as comfortable, though, as you would be if you went in the buggy. And you know you may have some fish to carry, too, when you come home." "Yes!" said Johnnie. "But I won't have any lunch." Being determined to ride on Twinkleheels' back, he buckled the saddle girth and slipped on the pony's bridle.
"Maybe you'll learn that Bright and Broad are faster than you think they are. We've known Farmer Green to take them and leave us here in the barn when he was in a hurry to go somewhere, too." "Ha! ha!" Twinkleheels laughed. "You're joking. You're trying to fool me." "Oh, no!" the bays cried. "Ask Bright and Broad themselves."
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