A MAY VISIT TO MOOSILAUKE 13 



about it; for I have hardly begun my return 

 before I find myself again approaching the 

 abandoned farm. Downhill miles are short. 

 Here a light shower comes on, and I raise my 

 umbrella. Then follows a grand excitement 

 among a flock of sheep, whose day, perhaps, 

 needs enlivening as badly as my own. They 

 gaze at the umbrella, start away upon the gal- 

 lop, stop again to look (" There are forty look- 

 ing like one," I say to myself), and are again 

 struck with panic. This time they scamper 

 down the field out of sight. Another danger 

 escaped ! Shepherds, it is evident, cannot be so 

 effeminate as to carry umbrellas. 



Two heifers are of a more confiding disposi- 

 tion, coming close to look at the stranger as he 

 sits on the doorsill of the old barn. Their curi- 

 osity concerning me is perhaps about as lively 

 as mine was touching the supposed liverworts. 

 Like me they stand and consider, but betray no 

 unmannerly eagerness. "Who is he, I won- 

 der?" they might be saying ; " I never saw him 

 before." But their jaws still move mechanically, 

 and their beautiful eyes are full of a peaceful 

 satisfaction. A cud must be a great alleviation 

 to the temper. With such a perennial sedative, 

 how could any one ever be fretted into nervous 

 prostration? As a matter of fact, I am told, 



