LAMB, SHEPHERD AND FOX 61 



hostile energy which consorts most queerly with the 

 maternal pleasure in giving suck. 



The boy, who had proved himself a real disciple of 

 the old shepherd, had inspired a complete though not 

 surprising confidence in the lamb. It followed him in 

 stantly as soon as he appeared, and was obviously at the 

 end in some doubt whether the mother was to be pre 

 ferred before him. How did it know its friend ? Such 

 questions cannot be answered ; but it is a not uncommon 

 experience that animals in distress see protection in man. 

 I have known a tired fox sidle up to a ploughman and 

 stay by him. A bird, chased by a hawk, took refuge in 

 the small boat of another acquaintance and stood between 

 his feet. If wild animals will grow so tame and grateful, 

 how should not a domestic lamb have utter faith in the 

 shepherd s son ? 



A very different scene was recalled by the incident 

 from &quot; happy homely Hertfordshire.&quot; On the Cotswolds 

 works, loving his work, a shepherd who sees the spring 

 come in very different form from most of us. Doubtless 

 the valley shepherd, who 



tells his tale 

 Under the hawthorn in the dale 



is aware of as conventional a spring as any gardener or 

 poet. He tells his tale, that is, counts his sheep, where 

 the &quot; maze of quick &quot; burgeons, where the dandelion 

 has secured a &quot; thousand golden darts,&quot; where the 

 meadows are &quot; pied.&quot; The approach of spring on the 

 Wold and on the Down has signs we scarcely dream of 

 in the valleys ; such as the innumerable snails and the 

 number of wheatear ; but a grimmer sign is now in 

 question. Not the seductions, but the hunger of spring 

 is most insistent ; and to the farmer the season is one of 



