“O, mamma!” cried Minnie, “I’m in a real clean place on this straw, and Nannie likes to lick my hand. How funny Star is looking round to see what I am doing to his friend.”
A few hours later, when Mrs. Lee sat with her sewing in the back parlor, the little girl ran into the room, and taking a cricket, pulled it toward her mother, saying,—
“I want you to tell me all you know about sheep and lambs. Can they do such wonderful things, as dogs, and horses, and cats can?”
The lady laughed. “I am afraid,” she began, “that you would not be satisfied with what little I can tell you; for I confess that I know very little about them. You had better wait till your father comes home, for he has been studying a good many books on that subject, and has learned about the different kinds, with a view to buying a flock.
“Or you can ask Anne; for she was brought up in a shepherd’s family, and can tell you all about the way they bring up little lambs when their mothers will not own them.”
“‘Not own them,’ mamma! What can you mean? I thought mothers always owned their little children.”
“Sometimes a ewe, as they call the mother, has two or three lambs at a time; and perhaps she thinks she could not nurse them all, and so she chooses one or two that she will take care of, and when the other comes near her, she butts it softly with her head. The lamb knows then that she will not take care of it; and the little forsaken creature begins to cry, Anne says, ‘for all the world just like a little baby.’”
“And what do the people do for it?” inquired Minnie, tears filling her eyes.
“Why, they take it away from the flock, and ‘bring it up by hand,’ as they call it; that is, they feed it with milk, and it learns to love the one who takes care of it, and follows her about wherever she goes, just like a little dog. Anne will tell you all about it.”
“She is busy now. I heard her tell cook she wanted to give your chamber a thorough cleaning to-day. Can’t you remember something more?”