Aunt Nancy was still feeling sorry for Uncle Jerry Chuck, whose rest had been disturbed by the thud of hoofs above his head. "Remember!" she said to Snowball sternly. "Don't go near Uncle Jerry's home again!"
"I won't!" he promised. "That is," he added, "I won't if I can help it. If I find myself running that way I may not be able to stop myself."
Now, that sort of promise wasn't enough for Aunt Nancy.
"You must turn aside!" she told Snowball. "Just make believe that there's a bear beyond the stone wall, instead of Uncle Jerry Chuck! Then—" she said—"then you'll turn quickly enough!"
"That's a good idea!" cried Snowball. "If only I don't forget it!"
Aunt Nancy's words never left his mind all the rest of the morning. Just thinking about bears made Snowball frightfully uneasy. Whenever one of the flock happened to stray up behind him Snowball jumped, fearing for a moment that it was a bear.
If anybody said baa in his ear he leaped to one side, expecting the baa to turn into a woof!
He began to wish that Aunt Nancy hadn't told him of her idea.
And all at once, when somebody came up behind him and gave him a nudge, Snowball started to run.
"There's a bear behind me!" he thought.