gh 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