The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1889-09-05
The First Days of IA Little Lamb.
1Montain Wool Grower.

Montain Wool Grower.
About five minutes after lamb is
born he is on his feet. The unsteady
earth under him now heaves to the
right, surges up and then down, and
whirls and twirls with him while he
staggers and struggles, and twists one
leg around the other like a vine around
a tree, or else he spreads those men,
bers all out until they look like the
forks undera weather vane. He tum-
bles down for the fiftieth time. and for
the fiftieth time renews the fight to Sc
cure that footing in the great world
from which only can he reach the life
giving milk. His mother-particularly
if it is her first-in her crazy anxiety
to help, knocks him down, steps Oil
him and does-without leaving out a
possible exceptien-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 stran-
ger. "The confounded pair of idiots"
frets the impatient shepherd, who does
not care to drive them until the lamb
finds milk. In half an hour his sides
bulge out. And as the shepherd slowly
urges the old eve towards home the
lamb goes reeling and rolling along
like an old tar just ashore from a years
voyage.
About the first error the lamb makes
in life is to mistake the shepherd or his
dog for it's mother, and many are the
maneuvers that must be gone through
with to make the new arrival follow
the right party. His next error is like
ly to be an attempt to walk on air when
he comes to a place where he should
90 down hill. His ten minutes eXper-
ience in life has made him believe that
all the earth is level plain, and in
broad daylight he steps off the top of a
bill just as serenly as man steps off
the landing of the stairs in total dark
ness when he is certain that the stairs
are yet twenty feet away. The result
is a great surprise in each instance.
The lamb picks himselfup, and con-
tinues down the hill; he soon comes to
the conclusion that everything is down
hill in his life, and not on dead level.
Upon getting to the foot of the hill, he
still tries to continue downward, and
as result runs his nosei into the ground
and looks surprised again. He now
comes toa 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 suspic-
ious. He was pushed over and growled
at for following the dog when he
thought it was his mother; the shep-
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 shadow cast by
a 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 line? It must be worse
than going down hill or up hill or run
ming after a.dog that growls or man
that kicks. Itsurely 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
it; be stands on the edge and bawis at
the top of his powers. The shepherd
with his big foot comes to the rescue,
and our little lamb is lifted from sun
light to shadow on the end of No. 8
boot.
He trots along after his mother for a
few yards and meets new difficulty.
This time it is from shadow to sunlight.
1t 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 simply and easy,
and concludes that things are not so
bad as they look, He has already be-
gun 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 a whole hour he has been running
his respirative, circulative and locomo-
tive 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 she is running from danger. He
strikes out after it. It is wonderful
what an hour has done for him in the
way Of development; he runs faster
than the shepherd, faster than his
mother, and is in imminent danger OF
getting under the horses feet or the
wheels of the carriage.
git is here that the dog comes in play,
if he. understands his business. He
runs up alongside Of the lamb, pushes
it over with its nose, jumps upon it,
and holds it down upon the ground
with its nose until the shepherd comes
up. The shepherd takes the lamb and
stands it upon its feet so that it can
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