b. He isn't a very good
shepherd or he'd have been looking out for poor little lambs. Shady
used to herd sheep and he's told me lots about it."

"And what shall I do?" asked Kitty. "I'm afraid to hold Firefly,--he
nearly pulls me off the saddle."

"Then tie both horses to the bars here and help me with the lamb."

Kitty offered no protest. This was so like Blue Bonnet. It was always
a stray dog or a lost baby, or an old woman at the poor-house that
enlisted her ready sympathy; Kitty ran over a long list in her mind.
Of course it had to be a lost lamb or a calf in Texas; the wonder was
there hadn't been more of them.

Hastily tying both ponies to a fence-post with a scrambling knot of
the reins that would have brought down Blue Bonnet's wrath upon her
hapless head, Kitty hastened across the close-cropped meadow. It
seemed to her they trudged miles, taking turns carrying the lamb,
before they reached the little shack. A stupid young fellow,
half-asleep, lay sprawled in the shade.

"Here's a lamb we found by the road," said Blue Bonnet, proffering her
woolly burden.

Without uttering a word the sleepy youth took the lamb from her; but
Blue Bonnet, observing his manner of handling it, saw that he was wise
in the ways of sheep, and she was content to leave her charge with
him.

"Flock's over there," he said at length, pointing vaguely with his
thumb.

"All right. Come on, Kitty." As they turned away she said in an
undertone: "Shady says the herders are alone so much they almost
forget how to talk."

"He's evidently forgotten how to say 'thank you,'" Kitty said crossly.
"Why, Blue Bonnet--where are the horses?"

"You ought to know. Where did you tie them?"

Kitty's startled eyes rested on the post beside the bars. "To that
post there. Oh, Blue Bonnet, some one must have stolen them!"

"Stolen? Who'd steal them, I'd like to know? This comes, Kitty Clark,
of letting you hitch a horse!" Blue Bonnet was straining her eyes for
a sight of the runaways.

"This comes, Blue Bonnet Ashe, of following you on every wild-goose
chase you choose to lead me!" Cross, tired and out of patience, Kitty
flared up in one of her sudden outbursts, and Blue Bonnet took fire at
once.

"If you think I'm going to let a poor creature starve to death rather
than disturb your comfort, you're much mistaken!" An angry glance
passed between them.

Sarah, the pacifier, was several miles away by this time; and even she
would have felt her