“No, I think she did not know that. She says she don’t know much about sheep.”
“Very likely, as she was not brought up with them. There is a kind called Merinos, which are very bad nurses. Grandfather wouldn’t have them on that account, though they have very fine wool, which sells for a good price. Out of a hundred lambs, they wouldn’t bring up more than half.
“They are poor, tender little things, any way. Well, I mind the time when there was a great storm, and grandfather had to be up all night, housing the poor craturs; for the lambs were coming fast. A little past midnight, mother called me, and there we sat till morning, before a blazing fire, warming up one and another, as he brought them in. I sat down on a cricket, and took two or three in my lap at once, and hugged them up to my bosom. When they began to twitch, and we found they must die, we put them on the great hearth rug, and took more. Sometimes they’d just lie down and go to sleep, and when we had time to look at them, they’d be stiff and cold; and then again they would cry out like a baby. It used to make my heart ache to hear them.”
Anne had now finished her work, and came down from the steps.
“I don’t think I should like to be a shepherdess,” said Minnie, sighing.
“O, yes, you’d like it mightily. Such a time as that only comes once in a great many years. And then, when it’s warm summer weather, and the lambs frisk and frolic about their mothers in the field, and you just sit down and play on the accordeon, while the dog keeps the flock in order,—O, there’s no work so pleasant or so healthy as that!”
When Mr. Lee returned from the city, Minnie was ready with her questions about sheep.
“I want to know all I can about them,” she exclaimed.
“There are few stories that can be told about sheep,” he answered, cheerfully; “for it must be confessed that they are far inferior to the horse, dog, and many other animals, in intelligence and sagacity. The sheep has few marked traits, except its meekness, and its natural affection for its young. Still, when I remember that the lamb was selected before all other animals for sacrifice, and as a type of Him who is called ‘the Lamb of God,’ and who is to take away the sins of the world, I feel a deep interest in its welfare.
“The sheep, too, is one of the most useful animals, its fleece or wool being used as a covering to man, and its flesh for food. It was only yesterday I read the well-established fact that, from one pound of sheep’s wool a thread was spun so fine that it reached to the almost incredible distance of ninety-five miles, while one of ordinary fineness reached twenty-six miles. This covering grows so thick in winter that it enables them to bear cold which would be fatal to other animals. They appear to know, too, when a storm is approaching, and take refuge under a sheltering hill or some projecting cliff.