Page:Stories and story-telling (1915).djvu/257

 THE MISSING LAMB

One evening a shepherd was turning away from the fold when one of the sheep bleated mournfully.

"Is thy lamb missing, poor mother?" asked the shepherd.

Just then he heard a loud bark, and there half a field away was Carlo, his dog, guiding home a frightened lamb. The little creature had strayed away from her mother to find the very sweetest bits of sheep sorrel.

"Bow wow, master," called Carlo, "don't close up yet."

"Ba-a-a, ba-a-a-a," cried the little lamb, "dear mother, where are you?"

The mother heard her and bounded into the air with joy. "Ba-a-a, come to me, my lamb," she called, "come to me, my lambkin, my wee lambkin, my wee wee little lamb."

The little lamb leaped to her mother's side and was safe in the fold.

The shepherd patted Carlo on the head and called him "Good dog" and said, "Come with me, my dog, and I'll give thee a bone thick with meat."

THE ANT AND THE DOVE

Once an ant went to the bank of a river to quench her thirst. As she stooped to the water she fell in