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Updated: June 29, 2025
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.
The roads must be blocked with drifts already." Twinkleheels moved restlessly in his stall. "I don't want to stand here with nothing to do," he grumbled. "If I could sleep in the daytime, as you do, perhaps I wouldn't mind. And if I were like the Muley Cow maybe I could pass the hours away by chewing a cud. Bright and Broad can do that, too," said Twinkleheels. "Oh!
"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.
It was only with a great effort that he managed at last to roll all the way over; and then he couldn't roll back again. Clumsily he flung his fore feet in front of himself and by a mighty heave pulled himself off the ground. "Slow, isn't he?" Twinkleheels remarked to the Muley Cow, who was chewing her cud and looking on. "He doesn't get up the right way," said the Muley Cow.
But the next morning he made Twinkleheels kick a few times. "It's really good for him," Johnnie tried to make himself believe. "He needs the exercise." If there was one sort of work that Johnnie Green had always disliked more than another, it was picking currants. Of course he didn't object to strolling up to a currant bush and taking a few currants for his own use, on the spot.
"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."
They seldom even trotted. And when they did move faster than a walk they lurched into a queer, shambling swing. The first time Twinkleheels saw them travelling at that gait he couldn't help giggling. "They look as if their legs were going to knock down all the fence posts on the farm," he exclaimed.
So Twinkleheels spoke to Bright and Broad the very next day, when he met them in the barnyard. While he told them what the bays had said to him they chewed their cuds and listened with a dreamy look in their great, mild eyes. Twinkleheels paused and waited for them to speak. But they said nothing. Their jaws moved steadily as they chewed; but they said never a word.
Throwing currants at Twinkleheels became one of Johnnie Green's favorite sports. Whenever boys from neighboring farms came to play with him, Johnnie was sure to entertain them by taking them out behind the barn to show them how high he could make Twinkleheels kick. As a mark of special favor, Johnnie would sometimes let his friends flick a few currants at his pet.
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.
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