Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-09-13
ONE HOUR OF LAMB LIFE.
PITFALLS THAT LIE IN THE PATTI
OF TIE YOUNG MUTTON.

| Has to Begin the Business of Life When
! Five Minutes Old-Like Man He Often
| Estimates Inaccurately but the Shepherd
| and the Dog Are There Help Him.
| About five minutes after the lamb IS born
he is on his feet. The unsteady earth under
him now heaves 10 the right, surges up and
then down, and it whirls and it swirls with
him while ne staggers and struggles, and
twists one leg around the other Ike vine
around tree; or else he spreads those mem
/ bers all out until tAeY look Ike the forks
under q weather vane. He tumbles down
for the fiftie1h time aud for the flftieth time
renews the fight to secure that footing in the
! great world from which only can be reach
/ the life giving milk His neutrality-suspicious.
/ lariy If it Is Ter tilst-in her crazy anxiety to
/ help, knocks hin down, steps on him, and
! does-without leaving out a possible excep-
! tion-everything she should not do, willis
( she leaves nearly everything undoa,s that
might help the little fellow to get the desired
noUrlshment.
! oh the poor, deaT little thing; isn't it too
! bad" says the sympathetic stranger. THE
/ confoundea pair OF idiotst" frets the i'm
( patient shepherd, who does not care to drive
I them until the lamb finds milk and gets
filed up"
CHANCES EyS hind OFTEN.
/ In half an hour his milk can Is fun; his
sides bulge out with surfeit Of the pure
article warranted to stand the most rigid
test for admixture of water. And as the
( shepherd slowly urges the old eve toward
/ home, the lamb goes realing and rolling
along ike an old tar just ashore from
/ years voyage.
About the first error the lamb makes in life
is TO mistake the shepherd or his dog for its
mother, 2nd many are the nlanecverS that
must be gone through with to make the new
arrival follow the right party. His next er-
ror is likely to be attempt TO walk on air
when he comes to a place where he should go
down hill. His ten minutes experience in
life has made him believe that all the earth
I is a level plain, and III oroaddaylight lie steps
OFF the top OF q hill just as serenely as a man
steps off the top Landing of the stairs in total
darkness when he is certain that the stairs
are yet twenty feet away. The result is a
great surprise TO man and lamb IN each in
stance.
The lamb picks himself up, and continues
down the hill; he soon comes TO the conclu-
sion that everything IS down the hill in this
life, and not on a dead level. Upon getting
to the foot Of the hill he still tries to continue
downward and as a result runs his nose into
the ground and looks surprised again. He
. now comes to a place TO get up hill, and goes
up Just as our man starts TO go up stairs in
total darkness when he thinks the stairs are
still twenty feet away.
Our lamb is now getting very suspicious.
He was pushed over and growled at for fol-
lowing the dog when he thought it was his
mother; the shepherd kicked and abused him
for following him; he tumbled down hill
when he saw nothing unusual in the looks of
the ground, and up hill again under similar
circumstances. In this frame OF mind he
comes to a shadow cast by neighboring hill.
This is the most appalling thing he has yet
seen in hfe He stands in the bright sunshine;
twelve inches ahead of him all the world is
black. How shall he get over that terrible
line? It must he worse than going down hill
or u hill, OF running after a dog that growls
or man that kicks. 1t surely looks much
more frightfal than any Of these things. His
mother is III the shadow, and coaXes him to
come along, but he viii not risk it-he stands
on the edge and bawl5 at the top of bis pow
ers. The shepherd with his big foot comes to
the rescue, and our poor lamb is lifted from
sunlight to shadow on the end of a number
nine boot.
He trots along after his mother for few
yards and meets a new difficulty. This time
it is from shadow to sunlight. It looks tough;
the situations seems to present no end of diff
entities. He walks across the line with fear
and trembling, only TO find it very simple and
easy, and concludes that things are not so bad
+b,xr L. CL- Il hoe oil d. 70 {SyN1
out that things which seem easy in life lead
often 10 disaster, and forbidding things often
present no real danger.
THERE'S NOTHING FUNNHR.
At this time he is about one hour old; for
a whole hour he has been running his respira-
tive, circulative and locomotive powers as an
Independent being, and has become quite a
lamb. just at that instant a carriage drives
rapidly along the road His quick eye sees it;
he thinks perhaps it is his mother, and that
cha i t.,v,,T,,~r FyC,,,