Krag, the Kootenay Ram 



like themselves, and coolly turned their uncertain 

 steps to follow their mothers. 



Of course Scotty could have shot any or all 

 of the Sheep, as he was within twenty yards of 

 the farthest ; but there is in man an unreasoning 

 impulse, a wild hankering to "catch alive" ; and 

 without thinking of what he could do with them 

 afterward, Scotty, seeing them so easily in his 

 power, leaned his gun in a safe place and ran 

 after the Lambs. But the distressed mothers 

 had by now communicated a good deal of their 

 alarm to their young ; the little things were no 

 longer in doubt that they should avoid the 

 stranger ; and when he rushed forward, his onset 

 added the necessary final touch, and for the first 

 time in their brief lives they knew danger, and 

 instinctively sought to escape it. They were 

 not yet an hour old, but Nature had equipped 

 them with a set of valuable instincts. And 

 though the Lambs were slow of foot com- 

 pared with the man, they showed at once a 

 singular aptitude at dodging, and Scotty failed 

 to secure them — as he had expected. 



Meanwhile the mothers circled about, bleat- 

 ing piteously and urging the little ones to escape. 



21 



