﻿132 PICTORIAL MISCELLANY. 



upon his feet, and was soon leaping by his mother's side. Now, 

 the field in which these sheep dwelt was a place of great beauty ; 

 the verdant hill, the sparkling streamlet, the shady tree, the green 

 pasture, were all there ; it seemed a quiet fold apart from the rest 

 of the world a pleasant place on purpose for that happy little 

 flock. Now, the little lamb of which I have been speaking was the 

 darling of the flock ; no other had so white a fleece, so mild an eye, 

 so gentle a nature. One day, as this little lamb was playing by him- 

 self, at a short distance from the fold, he was espied by an eagle, 

 who no sooner beheld him than he darted down, and, seizing him in 

 his talons, bore him far away from the little flock. O ! it was sad 

 to see the sheep look after their darling lamb ; and the poor little 

 lamb once caught the distant tinkling of the sweet bell it had so 

 loved to follow. Now, as the eagle was flying over a valley, an 

 archer shot an arrow which went into its heart, and it fell with the 

 lamb at the archer's feet. Then, the archer took the lamb home to 

 his child, and bade him take care of the poor little creature. Now, 

 the child had a tender heart, and he took the lamb, and bathed its 

 wounds, and washed the blood from its snowy fleece, and wept. 

 But the lamb began to revive, and the child was glad; and he took 

 a silken cord, and placed it about his neck, and led the lamb about 

 with him wherever he went ; and in the joy of his heart he thought 

 the lamb must be as happy as himself. But it pined for the loss of 

 its mother's love, and the peace it had known amid the happy little 

 flock in the far-off fold. One summer day, the child, being weary 

 with long rambling, fell asleep on a bank of flowers, still holding the 

 silken cord tightly in his hand ; but looser and looser it became, till 

 it slipped away from his grasp, and the little lamb fled away from 

 his side forever. 



Onward and onward went the lamb, not knowing whither. After 

 a time it began to rain, and the thunder rolled and the lightning 

 flashed. The poor little lamb trembled ; but when the thunder was 

 not heard for a moment he forgot his sorrows, and stopped to nibble 

 a daisy ; then, startled by a sudden flash, he looked up in terror, and 

 was again driven onward by the loud pealing thunder. On he went, 

 over a wide common, till he came to the foot of a steep hill, which, 

 with weary feet, he climbed ; but when he had gained the summit, 



