bliged to watch the animals to prevent their being lost, stolen by
robbers, or devoured by ferocious beasts. When it was at all safe, the
shepherds and their flocks slept in the fields, beneath the open sky, or
under the sheltering trees.

[Illustration: The Welcome to a Wayward Son.]

If the country was infested by dangerous men or animals, the owners of
the flocks built the fold or sheep-cote. This enclosure was sometimes
merely a rude pen. The walls were of wood or stone, with a thatched
roof--if they had any at all. The shepherd follows a wayward sheep, and
brings him back to a place of safety.

Thus the Good Shepherd of souls, whose disciples, like the flocks of the
East, "know his voice," with his rod of affliction restrains the
wandering and keeps securely the trusting ones.

Occasionally a rich land owner would make an expensive fold--a kind of
town or fortress for his flocks. Keeping the sheep in the air, it was
believed improved the texture of the wool, making it softer and firmer
than when exposed to the sweating and vapors which would necessarily
result from crowding them often and long into enclosures.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were among the richest shepherds of
antiquity, and stand alone in moral grandeur of character, so far as we
have any records of the Hebrew husbandmen.

The great enemy of the sheep the world over, is the wolf--a cunning,
savage, and daring creature. A lamb of the flock seems to be a dainty
feast for him. He relishes even a child; the human delicacy is quite as
delicious as the other. A mother, with three children, was once riding
in a sledge in a desolate region, when a pack of wolves came running
after her. She drove rapidly on, but they came nearer and nearer, until
their hot breath fell on her face. In her terror, she threw one of the
children to the hungry wolves, hoping thus to pacify or check them until
she could get out of their reach. Soon, however, they came galloping on,
surrounding her sledge, and she flung another upon the snow. A brief
delay, and they were once more around her, and the last child was given
to the beasts; and then she reached her home in safety.

When she told the story to her neighbors, an exasperated peasant hewed
her down with an axe, because she fed the wolves on her own offspring,
selfishly saving by the sacrifice, her own life.

How like the destroyers of human virtue, and the great destroyer
himself! Wolves in sheep's clothing, steali