"I got him!" Johnnie called to his father.

"I thought you would," said Farmer Green. "That pony likes oats too well
to resist a taste of them."

After that Johnnie had little trouble catching Twinkleheels in the
pasture. Somehow the sound of the shaking oats, and the sight of the
grain measure, seemed to put all thought of the halter out of his head.

To be sure, once Johnnie forgot what he was doing and hid the oats
behind his back, while he held the halter up in front of him and shook
that at Twinkleheels. And it was an hour, that time, before Twinkleheels
would let Johnnie come near him.

But that was a mistake.

One day Johnnie Green was in a great hurry. He was going to ride over
the hill, to play with some friends. 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. He had come to think only of one thing when that
whistle sounded in the pasture. That one thing was _oats_. And now
Twinkleheels squealed and kicked and tore down the hillside to the bars,