Who's Who in the Herd

Someone had left a muddy hoofprint on the shed door. Beside it was a note: "Guess who I am! Come to the big gum tree at lunchtime."

"A mystery!" said Little Thunder. "Who could it be?"

Suzy sniffed the note. "Let's be detectives. We need clues and proof."

Spike found a second note pinned to the gate. "Clue one: I am not the smallest in the herd, and I am not the biggest."

"That rules out the baby goats and Big Moscow," said Suzy.

At the dam, a third note floated on a leaf. "Clue two: I always say, 'Rise and shine, the grass is fine!'"

Little Thunder gasped. "I know who says that! It's Canberra! Or... is it Lima?"

"Don't guess yet," said Spike. "Find the sentence that proves it. Who have we heard say it?"

They thought hard. Suzy remembered first. "Lima says, 'Good morning, sunshine!' Canberra says, 'Rise and shine, the grass is fine!' I heard her say it at the gate this morning."

"Clue three," read Spike from a note on the water trough. "I have one white sock on my front leg, and I love to sing."

Little Thunder bounced. "Canberra has a white sock! And she hums every time she eats!"

"Three clues, and all of them fit," said Suzy. "That's our proof."

At lunchtime, they raced to the big gum tree. Canberra was waiting with a basket of crunchy apples.

"Well done, detectives!" she said. "How did you work it out?"

"Not too big, not too small," said Spike.

"Your famous saying," said Suzy.

"And your white sock and your singing," said Little Thunder.

Canberra laughed. "Then here's one last trivia question. Who in the herd has an orange ear tag with the number 00329?"

Little Thunder grinned and tossed his curly orange hair. "Easy. That's me!"