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.