AMONG THE ANIMALS OF THE YOSEMITE 187 



eat me as not. She do so as eef all my sheeps 

 b'long every one to her own self. I run to bear 

 no more. I take tree every time." 



After this the shepherds corraled the flock 

 about an hour before sundown, chopped large 

 quantities of dry wood and made a circle of fires 

 around the corral every night, and one with a 

 gun kept watch on a stage built in a pine by the 

 side of the cabin, while the other slept. But 

 after the first night or two this fire fence did no 

 good, for the robbers seemed to regard the light 

 as an advantage, after becoming used to it. 



On the night I spent at their camp the show 

 made by the wall of fire when it was blazing in 

 its prime was magnificent, — the illumined trees 

 round about relieved against solid darkness, and 

 the two thousand sheep lying down in one gray 

 mass, sprinkled with gloriously brilliant gems, 

 the effect of the firelight in their eyes. It was 

 nearly midnight when a pair of the freebooters 

 arrived. They walked boldly through a gap in 

 the fire circle, killed two sheep, carried them out, 

 and vanished in the dark woods, leaving ten 

 dead in a pile, trampled down and smothered 

 against the corral fence ; while the scared 

 watcher in the tree did not fire a single shot, 

 saying he was afraid he would hit some of the 

 sheep, as the bears got among them before he 

 could get a good sight. 



In the morning I asked the shepherds why 



