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Three white lambs and one lived together on a farm. They stayed close to their mothers at first, but as they grew bigger, they went farther away – under the hedges and over the fields.

One day the three white lambs, who were very bold, decided to explore the hills in back of the barn. The black lamb warned them that they were too young to go so far.

Well,” said one white lamb, “if you’re afraid, you don’t have to come with us.”

”I’m not afraid,” said the black lamb. “And I will go with you, since you don’t have the sense to take care of yourselves.”

It was still very early in the spring. Soon a cold wind came up, and it began to snow so hard that the lambs could not tell which way led back to the farm.

Soon they felt cold in spite of their warm coats, so they huddled together under some bushes, which has turned white. When the lambs tried to walk on the snowy ground their feet slipped – so the black lamb showed them how to snuggle together under the bushes to keep warm.

Meanwhile, the farmer was bringing in all the sheep and lambs, in case the snow became really deep. Soon they were all safe – except the three white ones and one black lamb. The farmer went off, through the fields, looking for the four lambs. But it is not easy to see white lambs in a snowy field. He looked and looked, hoping to see them through the falling snow.

Then, suddenly, he stopped, and there in the snow he saw a patch of black. Could that be the black lamb? He ran to it, and there were the three white lambs, as white as the snow, and the one black lamb, in the dry patch under the bush. “Well,” he said to the white lambs, “if you had not had little black lamb with you, I should never have found you. You are very lucky to have such a good and sensible friend.”

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