Connecticut western news., 1884-03-12
MARY'S LITTLE LAMB.
HOW HER OvERCOAT WAS TAKEN OFF AND WHAT WAS DONE WITH IT. shes ring the Sheep in the Olden Time in the
 Green Mountain State.
From the Century Magazine.l

shepherd, and had his half hundred or hundreds or thousands of grade sheep or full bloods dotting the ferny pastures of the hill country or She broad levels of the Champlain valley, rank with English grasses. From old Fort Drummer to the Canada line one could hardly get beyond the sound of the sheep's bleat unless he took to the great woods, and even there he was likely enough to hear the inter- mittent jingle of sheep'bell chiming with the songs of the hermit and wood thrushes, or to meet flock driven clat- tering over the pebbles of a mountain road; for a mid-wood settler had his lit- tie herd of sheep, to which he gave fin summer the freedom of the woods, and which took-alas for the owners crops the freedom of the meadow and grain patches, and were sheltered from the chill of winter nights in a frame barn bigger than their masters log-house.
 In June, when the May-yeaned lambs were skipping in the sunshine that had warmed the pools and streams till the bull-frogs had their voices in tune, the sheep were gathered from the pastures and driven over the dusty roads to the pens beside the pools on the tapped mill l-fumes and washed amid bother of of rushing waters, shouts of laughter of of men and boys, and discordant, plain tiff bleats of parted ewes and lambs.
 A fortnight or so later came the great event of the shepherds year, the shear ing, for which great preparation was made within house and barn. The best the farm afforded must be provided for the furnishing of the table; for the shearers were not ordinary farm labor CTS, but mostly farmers and farmers sons, and as well to do as their employ CT, who was likely enough to shear, in his turn, for them. Whoever possessed the skill of shearing a sheep thought it not beneath him to ply his well-paid handicraft in all the country round. For these the fatted calf was killed and the green peas and strawberries were picked. The barn floor and its overhanging scafolds were carefully swept, the stables were filtered with clean straw, the wool-bench was set up, and the reel full of twine was made ready in its place. Those were merry days in the old gray barns that were not too fine to have swallows holes in their gables, moss on their shingles, and fringe of hemp, mayweed, and smartweed about their jagged underpinning. There was jest ing and the telling of merry tales from morning till night, and bursts of laugh ter that scared the swallows out of the cobwebbed roof-pesk and the sitting hen from her nest in the leftover hay-mow. Neighbors called to get taste of the finn and the cider, to see how the flock "evridged" md to engage hands for their own shearing. At noon- ing, after the grand dinner, while the older men mapped on the floor, wool bench or scaffold, with their heads pill lowed on soft places, the young fellows had trials of strength at "pulling stick" or lifting "stiff legs" The skillful wool-tyer was rarer than the skillful shearer, and in much demand in his own and neighboring townships. He tied the feeces quickly and compactly, show ing the best on the outside. but with no clod of dirty locks in the middle; for in those days wool had its place and dirt its place, but the fleece was not their common place. The catcher was an humble but not unimportant member of the force. He must be alert and with a sheep ready for each shearer as wanted, and was never to take up a sheep by the wool, but with his left arm underneath, just behind the fore legs, and his right hand grasping hind leg. And thero was the boy to pick up locks, discarding the dirty ones, which were swept out doors. Ones back aches as he remem- bers this unpleasant duty of his boy hood, when he was scoffed by shearers and scolded by the wool tyer, and often had the added labor of carrying the wool to its storage. Fourteen heeces tied up in a blanket was the load, which, if they had been of nowadays weight, would have burdened strong man; but a five-pound fleece was a heavy one then. I have never been present at one of the modern public shearings, which comes before the swallows do, while winter is still skirmishing with spring, and are celebrated in the local papers; but I doubt if they are such hearty and enjoyable seasons as the old-fashioned shearings were.
 The wool-buyers secured the country at or after shearing time, and drove their bargains with the farmers. The small lots of wool were hauled in bulk to some central point of shipment, while the larger clips were sacked on the growers premises. The sack was suspended through hole of its own diameter in an upper floor and few heeces were thrown in, when the packer lowered himself into it and placed and trod the wool as it was passed to him till he had trod his way to the top. Then the sacks were lowered, sewed, weighed, marked, and went their way to market.
 The "tag-locks" and pulled wool were mostly worked up in the neighboring small factories into stocking-yarn, fan. nel, and blankets for the farmers use
 and into the then somewhat famous
 "Vermont gray, which was the common
 cold-weather outer clothing of New Eng
 land male farm folk. Readers of Thor
 eau will remember that he mentions i
 more than once, and thought it goot
 enough wear for him. The Yankee farm
 CT wore it "to mill an to neetin', anC
 the young men of forty years ago wer,
 not ashamed to appear in such sheep