the lambs and found also that the missing ones
were two of the Murches'.

"It's an old sheep with twins," said Ned.

"Isn't she off by herself somewheres?" I asked.

"Not very likely to be unless she's got hung; they always keep
together," replied Ned. "But she may have got hung in the brush, or else
has tumbled in between big rocks and can't get out. I suppose we ought
to look her up if that's so.

"I'll tell you what we will do," continued Ned; "we will walk clean
round the pasture, in the first place, keeping where we can see the
fence, for she may be hung in it."

Thereupon we set off to walk around the pasture, going along the farther
side to the northwest and the southwest first. The fence skirted the
thick bushes and woods. Toward the southwest corner there was a long,
craggy ledge a little within the pasture fence. It fell off, rough,
rocky and almost perpendicular on that side, from a height of fifteen or
twenty feet, and about the foot of the crag were many of the low, black
spruces, but from the upper side one could walk out on the bare, smooth
rocks to the very brink of the ledge. We approached from this upper
side, and as we came out on it, to look down into the corner of the
pasture, a crow cawed suddenly and sharply, and we saw three crows rise,
flapping, off the ground, below the crag.

"Hoh!" Ned exclaimed. "What are those black chaps up to there?"

We stopped and looked down attentively into the partly open plat of
pasture, inclosed around on the lower side by the seared, reddish line
of the now dried hedge fence.

"Why, Ned, see the wool down there on the ground!" I cried, as a white
mass caught my eye.

"Something's killed the sheep there!" replied Ned, in a low tone. "See
the head there and the meat and bones strung along. Something's killed
her and eaten her half up; and there looks to be part of a lamb farther
along by that little fir."

A very strange sensation, partly fear, stole over me, as we stood there
looking down upon the torn remains of the sheep and lamb. The place was
far off in the woods and the surroundings were wild and somber. There
was something uncanny, too, in the way those crows rose up and went
flapping away. In less degree, I think Ned experienced similar
sensations, for he stood without speaking for a moment, then said, "O it
may have been done by a dog, or maybe she died.

"Let's climb down and see what we can see," he continued.

"We can see that the sheep i