ew minutes to learn
standing up?"

"But they do have to learn, don't they?"

"Oh, yes. They don't always get it right the first time. Lambs make
mistakes the same as anybody else. But if they get started out right,
with a good meal the first thing, and a warm sleep, they go ahead
surprisingly. The trouble with them at first is that they are a little
weak."

"I don't suppose, then, that a lamb can get right up and follow the
flock?" she queried.

"Oh, no. That would be expecting too much. They can toddle around
pretty well in a few hours; but they could n't really travel till
they've had time to grow strong."

Janet paused in her questioning. She spent a few moments reflecting
upon the information gained thus far.

"Then I can't understand, Mr. Brown, how you can herd those sheep and
take care of the lambs too. You surely can't carry them all?"

"That 's just what the trouble is," he answered. "I guess that Harding
must be drunk. If he doesn't get back soon and bring help it's likely
to get serious."

"And what will you do?"

"You see, Miss Janet," he said, laying down knife and fork for a formal
statement of the difficulty, "when you 're grazing a bunch of sheep and
one of them drops a lamb she stays right there with it. That is, she
does if she is one of the natural kind. Pretty soon the flock has gone
on and she is left behind. After a while another has a lamb and she
drops out and is left behind. And so on. So there ought to be
somebody to take them back to the corral. But of course the lambs
can't travel. They 've got to be carried."

"How long do you suppose that man will take--at the farthest?"

"He ought to be back now. He may come any time. If I only knew he was
coming before night I would know how to manage. I would go right along
and leave the wet-lambs and their mothers stringing along behind; then
when he came with help he could get them in for the night. They would
be all right to stay out on the prairie for a while--all except those
whose mothers did n't care for them. But I would do that; and those
whose mothers did n't stick to them would have to die."

"Oh, that would be such a shame!" Janet's eyes opened wide as she
contemplated this state of affairs. "And how about the ones who had
mothers? Would it be all right if they had to stay out on the prairie
till the next day?"

"No-o-o-o--it would hardly do to leave lambs scattered around on the
prairie all night eve