Once upon a time there was a pretty, smart (and pretty smart) woman named Claire. She was, among other things, a sheep farmer. She made sure the sheep had plenty of grass to munch and water to drink ; that they had someplace to hide from the deep snows. She loved their wool and made sure that her flock was healthy so that their wool would be fine and people would want to buy it and use it for sweaters and mittens and wonderful hats. Every year Claire trimmed their wool (it’s called shearing). And every year she thanked the sheep for providing such lovely wool. She read the sheep letters from people who wrote to tell her what "wonderful mittens for little boys" her sheep had provided.

Claire’s sheep lived near a big lake with huge white water lilies. The sheep liked to wade in the water, especially when it was very hot out. When Claire wasn’t watching, the sheep tried to learn how to swim. It was very hard to put their faces in the water and some of the sheep said that sheep weren’t meant to swim. But Baasheepba, the leader of the sheep , said that sheep could do anything they put their minds to. Since the sheep had all elected Baasheepba to be their leader, they thought she was pretty smart (like Claire), so she must be right. One day Claire came to make sure that the sheep had their vitamins. They were by the lake and Claire said "you know, that big tree used to be beside the lake, not in it. I think the lake is getting bigger every day." The sheep looked at her; no one said anything, but they all wondered when she would notice that the lake now took up about half the pasture. Each day the lake got bigger and bigger. No one could figure out how it got bigger -- there wasn’t any rain; there wasn’t any little stream leading into the lake. Even the local forest ranger couldn’t figure it out. Claire started to worry -- what if all the land was under water? What would the sheep eat?

Well, Claire was very kind to her sheep and didn’t pinch them when she was shearing. They loved her a lot. That night Baasheepba called a meeting. First the sheep crept to the house to make sure that Claire was sleeping and not worrying. All was quiet.

After the meeting, the sheep were very busy. When Claire went to check on them and see how big the lake had become, she always found two or three sheep standing nonchalantly near the lane -- just looking over the fence. They would greet Claire with loud "BAAs" and then more sheep would appear. Claire said "What is this guys -- a sheep’s early warning device?" The sheep almost dropped their wool -- that’s exactly what it was -- how did she know? Then Claire laughed and they were relieved: Claire was just joking. She didn’t think that they could create an early warning system.

One day the lake covered the whole meadow. Although Claire lived in Rescue, she was in despair. What would happen to her wonderful sheep? When she went out to the lake she found that the sheep had a surprise for her. They had spent many days and nights practicing and were ready to show off. Claire had told a friend that when it rained a lot she put water wings on the sheep. So Baasheepba and her friends decided that learning to swim would be easier than wearing uncomfortable water wings. So they learned to swim!

They were so good that they put on a show. Baasheepba and Woolight, and even cranky Baahumbug practiced every day. They were synchronized swimmers! They smiled and stroked and went under and put one hoof in the air all at the same time. There were only a few differences from the Olympics: no lipstick (Baahumbug wouldn’t wear any); no music (even the sheep didn’t think that their singing qualified as music); and no swimming suits in loud colors (they wore matching body suits, tho). The sheep worked very hard and smiled very hard and Claire laughed and laughed. She hugged the sheep and told them that they were wonderful. What a great way to use all that huge lake that had taken over the pasture. "But what will you eat," Claire asked? The head gourmet sheep, named Rick, nudged Claire. The other sheep herded her over to where the water lilies were thickest. Then they munched away -- on the water lilies!!

The next time that Claire sheared them and sold the wool, people called her to ask what kind of special sheep she had that had such wonderful wool. She said, "It’s their special exercise and diet and it’s very secret?" So the sheep continued their swimming and they all lived happily ever after….

Until the day the sheep were watching TV and saw synchronized platform diving. There were human girls all curled up going off diving boards 30 feet over the water -- leaping up and off curling up and uncurling in time to hit the water straight down. And they did each of these at the same time! The sheep fell under the spell. As soon as the program turned to horseracing, the sheep were off to the lake. There was a problem -- no platforms

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