Page:Edison Marshall--Shepherds of the wild.djvu/116

108 he darted off in a half-circle the whole band came pell-mell after him as if, young as he was, they were afraid to trust themselves without his guidance.

The longer Hugh looked at him, the more he was marked from all the other sheep in the flock. Of course it was possible that the mere fact that he was a male of the species was enough thus to distinguish him; yet ignorant though he was of the ways of sheep, Hugh found this explanation insufficient. In the first place Spot was just a yearling and evidently not yet mature. He could not imagine some of those strong-minded old ewes trusting their lives and fortunes to any ordinary immature ram. But this creature had a carriage not to be seen in the others, seemingly a spirit and pride and self-reliance that didn't quite fit in with the nature of domestic sheep. His very stride revealed a bold, fearless, domineering disposition.

He did not graze easily, as did most of his followers. He skipped about across the whole front of the flock, now perching upon some lofty crag, now scampering up a narrow trail where the flock could scarcely follow. But in the hot, still late-afternoon, as the sheep were beginning to stir after a long rest in the forest shade, Spot gave him even further cause to wonder.

To Hugh, it seemed the hottest hour of the day. His human sense, however, misled him: in reality, the highest point had been reached, and