nearly at the same instant; "how now, sirrah! dost worry the cattle in
this gait, when the eyes of the prudent are turned from thee? Do as thou
wouldst be done by, is a just and healthful admonition, that the learned,
and the simple, the weak and the strong of mind, should alike recall to
their thoughts and their practice. I do not know that an over-driven colt
will be at all more apt to make a gentle and useful beast in its prime,
than one treated with kindness and care."

"I believe the evil one has got into all the kine, no less than into the
foals," sullenly returned the lad; "I've called to them in anger, and I've
spoken to them as if they had been my natural kin, and yet neither fair
word nor foul tongue will bring them to hearken to advice. There is
something frightful in the woods this very sun-down, master; or colts that
I have driven the summer through, would not be apt to give this unfair
treatment to one they ought to know to be their friend."

"Thy sheep are counted, Mark?" resumed the grandfather, turning towards
his descendant with a less austere, but always an authoritative brow; 'thy
mother hath need of every fleece, to provide covering for thee and others
like thee; thou knowest, child, that the creatures are few, and our
winters weary and cold."

"My mother's loom shall never be idle from carelessness of mine," returned
the confident boy; "but counting and wishing cannot make seven-and-thirty
fleeces, where there are only six-and-thirty backs to carry them. I have
been an hour among the briars and bushes of the hill logging, looking for
the lost wether, and yet neither lock, hoof, hide, nor horn, is there to
say what hath befallen the animal."

"Thou hast lost a sheep!--this carelessness will cause thy mother