Bernardo! Warm it up a bit. Dinna you know you'll
have your labor for your pains unless the stuff is hot as the sheep can
bear it? Hurry your flock ahead there, Jose. Think you we want to be
dipping sheep the rest of the season? If those ewes have drained off
enough let the dogs drive them back to the pens. They'll rub their sides
up against the boards and cleanse the pen as well as themselves. Now
bring out the new herd that came last week from Kansas City. You'll find
them in pens seventeen and eighteen. We kept them by themselves so they
would scatter no disease through the flock. After they are dipped they
can be put with the others."

The men took all he said good-naturedly. Sandy used no unnecessary
words, but what he did say was crisp and to the point, and the herders
liked it. They liked, too, to watch his face when his lips parted and
his glistening white teeth gleamed between them. Sandy had a very
contagious smile. He worked tirelessly, and ever as he moved about among
the sheep two great Scotch collies tagged at his heels. Busy as he was
he often bent down to pat one of the shaggy heads, and was rewarded by
having the beautiful dogs thrust their long noses into his hand or rub
up against his knees. It was amusing to Donald to watch these dogs dash
after the sheep and drive them into the pens. Sometimes they leaped on
the backs of the herd and ran the entire length of the line until they
reached the ones at the front. They then proceeded to bite the necks of
these leaders until they turned them in the desired direction. This
done, the collies would run back and by nipping the heels of the sheep
at the rear they would compel them to follow where they wished to have
them go.

Donald had never seen anything like it.

During the time that the dipping process continued he did not lack for
entertainment, you may be sure.

"You'll soon have nothing more to do, Sandy," the boy said one night
when he and the Scotchman were sitting in the twilight on the steps of
the big barn.

"How's that, laddie?"

"Why, the dipping will be over to-morrow, won't it?"

"Yes; but that is only the beginning of trouble. We shall then put the
herd out in the wet grass a while and soften their hoofs so they can be
trimmed before the flocks start for the range. Then the bells must be
put on, and the bands of sheep made up for the herders."

"What do you mean by making up the herd?"

"I'll try to tell you. Sheep, you must know, ar