Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1889-08-23
THE SHEEP AND THE sEA-GuLL.

AAANA AAhAAN S4ASSB 80
certain path through thicket when
evening came, and they left the down
for home. There might have been cas-
er ways or shorter ways, but these sheep
had gone by that path ten years ago,
and so they and their children would
go by it for ten years to come, or long
er, probably. That is the way with
sheep; they like nothing so we'll as do
ing the same thing over and over again.
Another fashion they have is that
when the leader of the flock does a
thing all the rest of the flock must do
the same thing after him, even if there
be no necessity for t. If, for example,
the leader jumps over bar TO get into
field, all the other sheep will jump
at the same place, even if the bar has
been taken away.
Now it happened that one morning,
while Farmer Harley's sheep were quiet
ly grazing on the down, sea -guil,
searching for plac, to make a nest,
came upon the very thiclet that lay
between the down and home, and it
seemed such an exceedingly nice place
that the gull decided to search no fur
thcr.
Gulls do not build in trees, as most
birds do, but on the ground and 50 this
particular gull chose the most suitable
spot in the thicl1ct and made its nest
there. 1t 50 happ mel that the mos,
suitable spot, in the CULTS opinion, was
directly in the sheep path, and there it
settled itself as com fortably as it knew
how. BY evening it was as much al
home as if it had always lived there.
But of all this the sheep were, OF
course, quite unconscious, and so they
trotte1 toward home that evening as
they had done every other evening fol
as long as they could remember. They
entered the path at the thicket in mar
row file, crowding each other as shee !
will do, AMI the heal sheep was a! most
on the brooding gull before he saw it.
IL might have stepped on it, not know
ing what it was, and then all the other
sheep would have done the same thing.
and that would have been the end OF
the gull; but the gull d id not propose
TO be put out of the way in any such
fashion, and, there fore, at the sight Of
the great sheep, crowding hard upon
her, She half rose, spread her broad
wings with flap, flap. and squaweI
out like stitlcd locomotive whistle.
No right minded sheep would step on
thing that acted like that, and the
leading sheep being of that sort Just
raised himself on his hind-legs, and
cleared the indignant gull at a bound.
That would have been sufficient for the
sheep behind, even if the GU had not
been there; but the gull was there, and
was fully as indignant at the last sheep
as at the first, aud took good care to
show that she was.
The next night the same thing hap
pencd, and the next and the next. After
that you might suppose that either the
gull or the sheep would tire Of the
game; but no. The thought of yield
ing seemed not to occur to either, and
so the nightly indignation of the gull
and the nightly leap frog, or leap-guIl
rather az t@ss sheep @.e faa, Up fes the
three weeks and a little over that it
took the gull to lay her eggs and hatch
them.
And no doubt, If they gave any
thought to the matter, both gull and
sheep were satisfied with themse yes, the
former feeling that she had held out as
long as she wanted to AMI the latter
feeling that they had tired the ugly,
squawking thing oat.