omanche Creek, having such advantages of contrast and sharp
comparison, was well calculated to strike the mind with the whole charm
of stream and forest; and so it worked upon Janet. To her right was
the prairie as monotonous as duty; to her left the creek with its
mirrored vistas, its rippling bends, its comfortable resting-places
where sun and shade played together. Inviting as it all was, however,
she kept well out on the open where her business lay; only occasionally
did she let her gaze wander from its set task to loiter in this more
restful scene. She kept on looking for lambs. But after a while she
awoke to the fact that she had been walking closer and closer when she
ought to be keeping out on the prairie; instead of using it as a guide
in her work she was making a companion of it. She turned at once and
marched out to the scene of duty.

As she got out nearer to the centre of her field of operations,--twelve
hundred sheep cut a pretty wide swath,--she thought she heard the cry
of a lamb. She stopped and listened. All was silence. It might have
been imagination, assisted, possibly, by some rumor of the distant
flock; but yet the still small voice had seemed to come from somewhere
near at hand. She went forward, listening intently. Presently she
heard it again; then she saw him. He was so close that she could see
his little red tongue as he opened his mouth and called to her.

Poor little lamb! There was not a sheep in sight. There was just him
and the prairie. He was barely managing to stand up; she could easily
see that he was on his last legs as well as his first ones. As she
went to him he took a step or two as if to meet her, but his legs
lacked stiffening and he fell on his nose. She ran and picked him up.
As she took him in her arms he opened his mouth again and called upon
his mother.

Which way to take him in search of milk became now a pressing problem.
She thought she felt him shiver. If he was to be saved, it would not
do for him to starve much longer; nature demands that if a lamb is to
live he must have his first meal without delay. She paused to decide
the matter, holding his passive little hoofs in her hand. To keep
right on after the flock might prove the quickest way; but again it
might not; it would be taking a chance. Back at the corral, far though
it was, the services of a mother were certain. The surest way seemed
the best to her, and having decided so, she turned abou