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Updated: May 29, 2025
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.
The Muley Cow told Ebenezer that he was entirely too good-natured. And they went their own ways, grazing and rambling aimlessly about the pasture. Now and then, during the day, they chanced to meet. And always the Muley Cow asked Ebenezer if Twinkleheels had learned anything more. "Not yet!" Ebenezer said, each time. "The day's not done till sunset."
And when they lunged forward the wagon just had to move or something broke. Though Twinkleheels admired their strength, he didn't care much for Bright and Broad's company. They were too sober to suit him. They were more than likely to stand and chew their cuds and look out upon the world with vacant stares and say nothing.
"Couldn't they beat you to the crossroads if you raced with them to-day?" "Well yes!" Twinkleheels admitted. And he gave Ebenezer a sharp look. "Who's been talking with you?" he demanded. "Nobody!" said Ebenezer. "I've been dozing here all the morning." "Not even a sparrow?" Twinkleheels asked. "No! Nobody has said a word to me." "That's strange," Twinkleheels mused.
Jolted as he was, he couldn't get a whole word out of his mouth at a time. He could only jerk a word out piecemeal. If the fish pole hadn't at last snapped off short, leaving only the butt of it in Johnnie's hand, there's no telling when Twinkleheels would have stopped.
He did not get far from the barn, however. Where the snow wasn't piled in drifts high above Twinkleheels' head it reached up on his fat sides. He floundered about the farmyard for a time. And, falling once, he dumped Johnnie Green neatly into a drift, head first. The spill didn't hurt Johnnie in the least.
"You kicked at Farmer Green yesterday," Spot reminded him. "Yes! But I never touched him," Twinkleheels answered. "I only wanted to see him jump." Twinkleheels' stall was an end one. Next to him stood the old horse Ebenezer; and beyond Ebenezer were the two bays. Twinkleheels often wished that he might have someone for his nearest neighbor that was a bit livelier than Ebenezer.
"I don't blame you for feeling a bit proud. I remember the day I got my first set of shoes. You see, I was young once myself." The old horse seemed to feel like talking. Twinkleheels was glad of that, for he felt that he must chatter about the new shoes he was going to have or burst. "Of course," said Twinkleheels, "most folks are shod before they're as old as I am.
Johnnie followed him all over the pasture. And when the dinner horn sounded at the farmhouse Johnnie had to go home without Twinkleheels. The afternoon was half gone before Twinkleheels let his young master put the halter on him. By that time Johnnie Green had learned something that he never forgot. Never again did he cheat Twinkleheels with an empty measure.
When anybody backed him between the thills of a wagon he was as slow as Timothy Turtle and no more graceful. And while people harnessed him he usually sighed heavily now and then, because he dreaded being hurried along the road. Before Twinkleheels came to the farm to live, Johnnie Green had thought it quite a lark to drive or ride Ebenezer. Now, however, Johnnie paid little heed to the old horse.
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