Page:Folk Tales from Tibet (1906).djvu/82

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56

STORY No. X.

THE SHEEP, THE LAMB, THE WOLF AND
THE HARE.

Once upon a time there lived an old Sheep in a low-lying valley of Tibet, and every year she, with her Lamb,[1] were in the habit of leaving the valley during the early months of summer, and going up on to the great northern plateau, where grass is plentiful, and where many Sheep and Goats graze throughout the summer.

One spring the Sheep, in accordance with her annual custom, set out for the north, and one day, as she was strolling sedately along the path, while her little Lamb skipped about beside her, she suddenly came face to face with a large, fierce-looking Wolf.

"Good-morning, Aunty Sheep," said the Wolf; "where are you going to?"

"Oh! Uncle Wolf," replied the trembling Sheep, "we are doing no harm; I am just taking my Lamb to graze on the rich grass of the great northern plateau."

"Well," said the Wolf, "I am really very sorry for you; but the fact is, I am hungry, and it will be necessary for me to eat you both on the spot."

  1. This story is also told of a Sheep and a Goat, instead of a Sheep and a Lamb. See accompanying illustration.