IN THE PASTURE 5 



and roaring, I prick up my ears, and you can hardly 

 see my feet when they touch the road, for I do not 

 want that great roaring horse to get there before I do. 

 So the master is pleased, and always takes me. How 

 would you like to go fast like that ? " said Comet, 

 smiling behind a bunch of grass. 



" I couldn't go fast if I wanted to," said Tom, hon- 

 estly. "I tried it once, when a plough-chain fell and 

 banged my heels. They called it running away, I 

 believe. My ! how warm I was. Everything looked 

 red as the sun in August, and a warm rain storm 

 rolled off my coat on to the grass. That is what it 

 seemed to me, but the farmer said, ' Tom is too fat and 

 soft. See how he sweats ! ' and they skimped my 

 dinner for a month." 



"Well, then, to continue," said Comet. "We ani- 

 mals haven't been shut up all summer except in 

 stormy weather ; the bars have been down between all 

 the best pastures. Even Sausage, the sow, and her 

 nine little pigs, have been out walking every day, and 

 her sty has had fresh bedding in it the same as if they 

 were Cow or Horse People. 



" We had so much freedom that I thought at first 

 that there would be a great many fights, but we have 

 all behaved beautifully. Even Nanny Baa, the stub- 

 born old sheep, and Corney, the mischievous goat, have 

 not butted any one or fought each other. 



" We've had a chance to hear about the world and 

 the other animals in it too, for a circus has been camp- 

 ing a few fields further down." 



" I don't like a circus," interrupted Jerry, decidedly. 

 " There are always a lot of bad-smelling, foreign beasts 



