He thought a few minutes and then he said: “I know the very thing. I’ll play a joke on the village people. I’ll go down to the village and cry ‘Wolf! wolf!’ Then all the people will come running to help me. When they get there they will find out I was just fooling and it will make them ever so angry.”
So Peter did just as he had planned. He left Watch to look after his flock and ran into the village crying “Wolf! wolf!” Of course all the people ran to help him drive away the wolf.
What was their surprise when the men reached the field to find that Peter was only playing a joke on them. They did not like it at all, but went back to the village without scolding him that time.
Peter thought it was a great joke, and in a few days decided to play the same joke again. So he ran to the village and cried “Wolf! wolf!” just as he had done before. The men decided to trust him once more and went to help him. When they came to the field they saw that Peter had fooled them again. This made them very angry and they said: “We’ll never come to help Peter again if he calls.”
Not long after that two wolves did come after the sheep and frightened Peter very much. He ran as fast as he could to the village and cried: “Wolf! wolf!” but the men said: “No, we are not going to see about wolves any more.”
Peter begged them to come but they would not. So he had to go back to the pasture by himself, and found nearly all of his sheep killed by the wolves. Even Watch had not been able to protect them. You see Peter had fooled the people when he did not need help, and now when he did need them they would not come; therefore he lost his sheep.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
(February 12th)
In which it appears that the character of the boy foreshadows the character of the man.