Page:An Australian Parsonage.djvu/153

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SKETCHES IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA.

not only necessary to watch that the sheep shall not eat the pernicious plants, but also to be able to treat an animal that is suspected of having done so, as is the case when its eyes look heavy and dull; if it is then kept without water for two days there is a chance of its recovery, but if allowed to drink when in that state the body swells and death inevitably follows.

"Once," she said, "a good part of the flock wandered away, and for two days and nights my sister and I neither ate nor slept. We said nothing about it, but as soon as we could see each morning we opened the door softly and hurried out upon the search. At last we met a man who had seen our missing sheep, and he directed us which way to go. You cannot be too gentle in minding sheep; if you run after them you drive them away, and sheep have their regular times in the day when they like to lie down and be quiet, and then the shepherds can sit and rest in their huts. My sister and I had our own hut, where we sat and sewed and read the Bible together, and thought how like our life seemed to that of the people in Genesis. One of our brothers took care of the pigs and brought them home at night; fifty pigs is a great deal to be on the mind of a child of nine years old."

And then followed a humorous description of the dogs helping to get the pigs home, and of the especial trouble given by some individual pig, bigger than the rest, who would presume on his superior size to bully his youthful driver, and be only induced to go the right road at last when one of the dogs fairly dragged him into it by the ear. Though whether the ear, the shoulder, or the tail was chosen by the dog as the best spot upon which to