The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1889-11-01
LIFE OF A LAMB.
THE VICIssITUDEs OF ITS FIRST
HOUR ON EARTH.
An Amusing Dissertation on Its
Eccentric GambOls, Explaining
How 1t Acquires a Proyerbial
Reputation for Innocence.

the other like vine around tree; or
else he spreads those members all out IN
til they look like the forks under q
weather vane. He tumbles down for the
fiftieth time, and for the fftieth time re
news the fight TO secure that footing in
the great world from which only can he
reach the life-giving milk. His mother
particularly if it IS her frst-in her
crazy anxiety to help, knocks him down,
steps on him, and does-without leaving
out possible exception-everything she
should not do, while she leaves nearly
everything undOne that might help the
little fellow to get the desired nourish-
ment.
"Oh, the poor, dear little thing; isn't
it too bad, says the sympathetic stranger.
s'The COMPOUNDED pair of idots!" frets the
impatient shepherd, who does not care to
drive them until the lamb finds milk and
''gets filed up"
In half an hour his milk can is full; 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 towarfT
home, the lamb goes reeling and rolling
along like 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, and many are the ma
noeuvIes that must be gone through with
to make the new arrival follow the right
party. His next error IS likely to be an
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 is a
level plain, and in broad daylight he
steps off the top of hill Just as serenely
as a man steps off the top landing Of the
stairs in total darkness when he is GER
tain that the stairs are twenty feet away.
The result is great surprise to man and
lamb in each instance.
The lamb picks himself up and con-
tinues down the hill; he soon comes to
the conclusion that everything Is down
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 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 sus-
picious. He was pushed over and
growled at foT following the dog when
he thought il was his mother; the shcp-
herd kicked and abused him for follow
ing 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 life. He stands in the
bright sunshine; twelve inches ahead Of
him all the world is black How shall
he get over that terrible inel It must
be worse than going down hill, or up
hill, or running after a. dog that growls
or a man that kicks. It surely looks
much more frightful than any of these
things. His mother is in the shadow, and
coaxes him to come along; but he will
not risk the stands on the edge and
bawls at the top of his powers. The
shepherd with his big foot comes to the
rescue, and the poor lamb is lifted from
sunlight to shadow on the end of a num-
Der 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 rough; the situation seems to
present no end of difficulties. He walks
across the line with fear and trembling,
only to find it very simple and easy, and
concluded that things are not so bad as
they look He has already begun to find |
out that things which seem easy in life |
lead often to disaster, and forbidding |
things often present no real danger.
At this time he is about one hour old;
for whole hour he has been running his |
respirative, circulatiye and locomotive
powers as an independent being, and has
become quite a lamb. Just at that in
slant carriage drives rapidly along the
road. His quick eye sees it; he thinks
perhaps It is his mother, and that she is
running from danger. He strikes out
after it. 1t is wonderful what an hour
has done for him in the way of develop
ment; he runs faster than the shepherd,
faster than his mother, and is in immi-
nent danger of getting under the horses
feet or the wheels Of the carriage.
1t is here that the dog comes to plav.
if he understands his business. He runs
up alongside of the lamb, pushes it over
with his nose, jumps upon it and holds
it down upon the ground with his nose
until the shepherd comes up. The shep
herd takes the lamb and stands it upon
its feet so that it can see its mother. who
has come up to within a few feet, He
holds it until it sees its mother on a move
and then lets it 60. the old eve ticks
off the face of a sadder and wiser lamb
lets him have another dose of LIQUID
nourishment, and together they get home.
There is only one thing that is 500
times as funny and provoking by turns as
a lamb, and that is 500 lambs together
when they are about month old The
shepherd sits down and watches the 500
lambs, all in bunch by themselves,
playing, running and frolicking, and he
laughs. When he has tried, and tried
IN vain, to get the same 500 across the
bridge or into a corral he sits down !;
lgain, but he does not laugh this time.
A young lamb has no way of telling
which eve is his mother, and the mother
'nly knows which lamb is her own by l
he scent. Hence, while very young it 5
S bad plan to have too many together,
or the eve may be confused by so many
ambs, or become partially Indifferent,
md the lambs perish for want of care.
When a few weeks old, however, they
NOW each other by the sound of the
-oice. In band of 1000 or 5000 ewes, a
eve may call her lamb, and the lamb 4
will answer from the other side of the S
lock. They will go as straight to each t
'ther, right through the whole band, as
hey would if they were the only two s
nimals for a mile around. Montana n
WOOL GrOaser. s
A Novel Nuptial Ceremony. il
An amusing marriage took place in t
llberton, Ga, the other day. A couple
anne to the court house to be married. A
ew Justice was called in. He had no