Page:Emma Speed Sampson--The shorn lamb.djvu/142

138 ram laying in the water and I cotched him on the fly, too, and now I'd like to have you lookin' like the devil was after you, the way you did when you first peeped over the wall."

So, the click was a camera!

"Ain't it a beaut? My brother brought it to me from New York. I'm a gonter learn how to develop the fillums myself and print 'em an' mount 'em an' all."

"Ye-es, but mind out! Here comes the sheep after you!" screamed Rebecca. The ram had picked himself up and was directing his attentions towards the new comer.

"Yes he is!" was the boy's scornful rejoinder. "I'll bus' open his fool head with a rock. Here, hold my camera!"

The ram stood with lowering head, his evil eye taking in the situation. He saw the boy stoop and select from the bed of the stream several stones. Had Goliath of Gath shown as much discretion as this pugnacious ram he might have lived to fight again. The animal uttered a meek little "Baa," turned tail and made a dignified exit up the pink path to where his admiring females stood midway up the hill.

Rebecca laughed and looked at the boy with more admiration than she had felt at first.

"Aren't you afraid of him?"