other coming with the bag and shears, but
not a single ewe was to be seen. Clutch's first question was, what had
become of them; and when Kind told him what he saw, the eldest brother
scolded him for not watching better.

"Now we have not a single sheep," said he, "and the other shepherds will
hardly give us room among them at shearing time or harvest. If you like
to come with me, we shall get service somewhere. I have heard my father
say that there were great shepherds living in old times beyond the
hills; let us go and see if they will take us for sheep-boys."

Accordingly, next morning Clutch took his bag and shears, Kind took his
crook and pipe, and away they went over the plain and up the hills. All
who saw them thought that they had lost their senses, for no shepherd
had gone there for a hundred years, and nothing was to be seen but wide
moorlands, full of rugged rocks, and sloping up, it seemed, to the very
sky.

By noon they came to the stony cleft up which the three old ewes had
scoured like deer; but both were tired, and sat down to rest. As they
sat there, there came a sound of music down the hills as if a thousand
shepherds had been playing on their pipes. Clutch and Kind had never
heard such music before, and, getting up, they followed the sound up the
cleft, and over a wide heath, till at sunset they came to the hill-top,
where they saw a flock of thousands of snow-white sheep feeding, while
an old man sat in the midst of them playing merrily on his pipe.

"Good father," said Kind, for his eldest brother hung back and was
afraid, "tell us what land is this, and where we can find service; for
my brother and I are shepherds, and can keep flocks from straying,
though we have lost our own."

"These are the hill pastures," said the old man, "and I am the ancient
shepherd. My flocks never stray, but I have employment for you. Which of
you can shear best?"

"Good father," said Clutch, taking courage, "I am the closest shearer in
all the plain country; you would not find enough wool to make a thread
on a sheep when I have done with it."

"You are the man for my business," said the old shepherd. "When the moon
rises, I will call the flock you have to shear."

The sun went down and the moon rose, and all the snow-white sheep laid
themselves down behind him. Then up the hills came a troop of shaggy
wolves, with hair so long that their eyes could scarcely be seen. Clutch
would have fled for fear, but the wolv