re. It could hear no kind shepherd's voice that it used to love to
listen to in happier days, but only terrible sounds like the bark of
wolves, coming nearer, and lions prowling about when it began to get
dark."

"Puir lambie!" murmured Jean, whose face now rested on her little fat
hands, while, leaning on the table, she looked up in Grace's face; "it
must surely ha'e been very frightened," she added, in a compassionate
tone; for she knew that she did not like to cross the turf in front of
the cottage, after dark, without Geordie's protecting hand.

"Yes, it surely must have been frightened enough, for it was certainly
in great danger, and the Shepherd knew what a terrible plight it must be
in, wandering about tired and hungry, far away from the fold. For what
do you think he did?" Grace continued, looking at Geordie; "he actually
left all the other sheep--the ninety-nine, you know--in the wilderness,
and went away to seek for this poor little silly lost lamb."

"Did he though! He must have been a real fine man," responded Geordie,
warmly. "There's Gowrie's shepherd lost a wee lambie among the hills not
lang syne, and when Gowrie asked him, when he came home, why he didna
look about among the heather for it, he said he couldn't leave the rest,
and that it was a puir sick beastie no' worth much trouble. But it was a
nice wee thing for a' that, and it must have died all alone there, with
nobody to give it a drop of water," said Geordie, regretfully, for he
had a tender heart for all dumb creatures. "I must tell Gowrie's lad
about this Shepaerd the very next time he comes round the hill. But did
he find the lambie?" he asked, turning to Grace.

"Yes, he found it. He looked for it 'till he found it,' the story says.
After wandering along a road full of danger and painfulness, and
sorrowful sights of the terrible ruin the wild beasts had wrought, he
came upon the little strange lamb, just when its heart was beginning to
faint and fail. The story does not say that he punished it for running
away and giving him so much trouble, or even that he spoke some chiding
words and pushed it along in front of him with his crook, as I have
sometimes seen shepherds on the road do when the sheep get footsore and
weary and unwilling to go on with the journey."

"Ay do they. They get their licks many a time when they don't deserve
them," chimed in Geordie, in a pathetic tone.

"Well, but instead of any hard words or beatings, what do yo