The Wrong Woman (3 page)

The man turned and strode away, leaving the dog on watch to mark the place.
Just below a water-hole near by was a place thickly covered with dry marsh
grass, all combed over by the wind and matted down like a thatched roof, beneath
which shelter opossums and rabbits ran about in tunnels of their own making. To
this place he went, and having grabbed a handful of hay from the convenient
mouth of a burrow, he returned to the lamb, and kneeling down beside it he
rubbed it into a comfortable warmth and dryness. Not quite satisfied with the
results (there was a touch of chill in the air), he produced a white pocket
handkerchief which had not yet been unfolded, and he used this to perfect the
work.

This latter touch was more than a Texas lamb can reasonably expect; but there
were distant circumstances which prompted the act, and the sentimental effects
of these were much augmented by the fact that the first and only lamb was
disowned by its mother. She had given it a cold-eyed look and walked away
without even the formality of taking its scent. As she was now back at her
grazing again, it was plain to be seen that she was going to give herself no
further concern in the matter; indeed, it was likely that when the lamb should
come forward to make his claims upon her, she would resent and oppose such
intimacy, sheep being different from other animals in this regard. The man felt,
naturally enough, that the first-born of such a host, and the representative of
so many idiots, mothered and motherless, who were soon to arrive, deserved a
better reception. The lamb spelled Duty as plain as chalk; and so he rubbed
away, with a look of weighty concern which almost obliterated the smile with
which he began. When the fleece was perfectly dry and warm he stood up to await
developments.

By this time the lamb, which had already tried to stand up, decided to do it.
It got part-way up and fell. Again it came up on its stilts, wavered drunkenly
and collapsed. It had made a mistake of some kind. But the only way to learn
walking is to do it; and a lamb, being more ambitious than either a colt or a
calf, rises at once and starts right in, regardless of the fact that it does not
understand the machinery. This one was weak but game; and it went down only to
rise again. It went in for a course of Experience; and finally, having got the
hang of things, it was balancing on all fours with fair prospects of success.
Its status was a little uncertain,like a sailor just landed on a continent
which seems to have been drinking,but still it was up and ready to try a step
or two if necessary. But now the dog, who had been keeping a sharp eye on every
move, became so personally interested that he gave it a poke with his nose; and
over it went. This must have been discouraging. The lamb, dazed for a moment,
waited for the spirit to move it, and up it came again, a little groggy but
still in the ring. It staggered, got its legs crossed and dug its nose in the
dirt, but by using that for an extra support it got its bearings again and was
not frustrated. This time it succeeded, its legs widely braced. With the general
demeanor of a carpenter jack it continued to stand, for that way was solid and
scientific; and now it looked straight ahead for the sheep that was not present.
In her place was empty airnothing. This not being according to the order of
nature, the lamb was at its wits' end.

The man in the case, acting upon the philosophy of Mahomet, gathered up the
lamb and went to the ewewhich would have been more easily done had the ewe been
willing. Having caught her and made her fast by putting her head between his
legs, which made very good stanchions, he hung the lamb across his palm and set
it down carefully on the proper spot on the prairie; and now, everything being
arranged as such things should be arranged, little Me went straightway to the
point, his underpinning braced outward like the legs of a milking-stool.

With a well-filled stomach, the lamb stared out at the world in general, and
seemed greatly edified. The man was about to let the ewe go, but hesitated,
considering that after she got back among the multitude it might be quite a
while before the lamb would have another chance. He had better keep her till he
had made sure that the lamb could not hold any more. The lamb grew visibly in
gumption; and finally, after another swig at the bar of life, he was a made
lamb. He actually started to walk. His steps, to be sure, were rather
theoretical and absent-minded, and as he had not yet discovered just where earth
begins and air leaves off, he seemed to be putting his feet into places that
were not there; but considering the dizzy height of his legs, and the unevenness
of this wabbly world, he did as well as any lamb can do on one dose of milk.
Once he seemed to be struck with the idea of having fun; he gave a frisky twitch
to a leg and a sort of little jump-up in the rear. The man, satisfied with this
evidence, let the ewe go, first taking the precaution to mark her by tying the
handkerchief round her neck.

All of which took but a short while. A lamb, upon arriving, needs a few
moments to take notice that this is the Earth; but he has not much more than
come to a stop when he realizes that it is the place for refreshments. For this
reason, the force of gravity cannot keep a good lamb down; and as nature has
provided him with just enough strength to rise and partake, the sooner he is
about it the better. After a few draughts from the fount of knowledge his
education is complete; and it is not many days till sheep life is too dull for
him and he must lead a livelier career. Mary's lamb "followed her to school one
day," and the reason he followed her to school was (a fact never before
published) that he thought Mary was his mother. It was a lamb whose mother had
disowned him, leaving the responsibility to Mary. And if there were any tag-ends
or trimmings on Mary's dress, it is safe to say that they bore evidence of
having been in the lamb's mouth.

The present lamb, again deserted by its parent, was completely at sea; and
not having anything to attach itself to, it simply kept on standing up, which
was plenty of exercise for it just now. The man, having released the ewe, who
went back to the flock with an inane
baa
which reminded a scattered score
of other ewes to do the same, now turned his attention to the problem of
carrying the little stranger. As this visitation was entirely unlooked-for, he
had not brought the lamb-bag along, so he had to find some other way. His coat,
unbuttoned at the top for the better insertion of his hand, he had been using as
a sort of capacious breast-pocket in which he stowed his lunch and other
incumbrances. One side of it now bulged out with the carcass of a cotton-tail
which he had scared out of the marsh grass, together with various conveniences
which he had brought along from the shack. These things out of the way there
would be room for the lamb to ride; he therefore spilled everything on the
ground and set to work to make an entirely new arrangement, pausing, however,
when he had unbuttoned his coat (he had left his vest off) to observe the
present state of his white shirt-front, one side of which, in addition to its
generally soiled condition and the darker streak which marked the pathway of his
hand, had now a crimson spot from the head of the cotton-tail. That side, in
comparison with the spotless and polished condition of the other, presented a
contrast as striking as did the new white lamb and the weather-stained flock.
Having hung the rabbit to the canteen strap, he put the lamb in where it was
warm; and now, as he resumed his ramble with the flock, the little grass orphan
(or whatever we may call an orphan whose parents are both living) bobbed his
head up and down at the powerful chest of his protector, and looked out upon the
world with all the advantages, and none of the disadvantages, of having been
born. This way with the young had previously been adopted by the aforesaid Mrs.
O'Possum, who always carries the children in her pocket; and whom we may imagine
noting the fact in terms of the very highest approval.

It had been his intention that morning to get back to the corral at an
earlier hour than usual; and as the sun was well past meridian he ordered the
dog out to turn the flock, the leaders of which were now about a quarter of a
mile away. The collie, eager for work, skirted round and brought them all
face-about suddenly, barking his threats along the van, and then closed in some
stragglers, according to instructions received from the distance. The man stayed
where he was till the flock had drifted past him; then he took his place at the
rear again, the dog falling in close behind. He idled along after them,
revolving in his mind his plans for the eveningsome boards to be nailed tight
on the storm-shed, and certain repairs on the south side of the pen.

Although the lamb had delayed him, the sun was still above the horizon as he
drew near homeif a word which means so much may be applied to a herder's shack.
A shack is a residence about like a farmer's smokehouse, being taller than it is
wide or long; and as it is intended only for sleeping purposes there is just
enough floor space to allow for a door, and room to turn yourself in as you shut
the door. Its breadth is equal to the length of a Texan when he lies down in the
bunk built into it, the headboard and footboard of which are the walls of the
building itself. It might be called a bedroom on the inside, but as it is only a
two-story bunk boarded in and roofed over, it is more properly a room-bed; or
rather it is comparable to a passage at sea with its upper and lower bunk and
the surrounding ocean of prairiea sort of stateroom in the flight of Time. The
architect of this one had been short of lumber, or too economical, the result
being that the present occupant was a trifle too long for it; and he had
considered the advisability of cutting a little window in the side to let his
feet out. Its inconveniences bothered him little, however, as he spent his
evenings stretched out on the prairie by the fire. It was so far from being Home
to him that he never felt so far from home as when he entered it; and as he
seldom entered it except in the dark, it was hardly a familiar place to him.
Outside it might be home all over; inside was a timber tomb and the far-away
country of sleep. This edifice stood on a low knoll from the heart of which
issued a small spring-fed stream which had cut itself a deep ditch or gully down
to the general level; and on the slope opposite to where the stream went out was
a narrow path where the sheep ran up. The little eminence, with its structures,
was a shanty acropolis to a universe otherwise unimproved.

It was to this place he was at last coming, his blatant rabble moving
gradually together as they neared their familiar destination. Now that he felt
relieved of responsibility, his thoughts, which had hurried on before him, as it
were, dwelt with much satisfaction upon a certain little prison-pen on the hill
ahead. Once arrived here, the lamb, could get a meal from his unwilling mother,
who would be confined in such straits in the narrow little pen that she could
not move nor help herself. The advantages of this arrangement the lamb would
make full use of; and thereafter he would get along very well, interrupting his
slumbers at any time and supping to his full satisfaction. There was a row of
the separate little stalls or sheep stocks along the outside of the corral, this
department being the orphan asylum of the community; and hereabouts there
galloped and capered, in springtime, lambs whose mothers had died in "havin'"
them, lambs whose own mothers were too poor to support them, and most frequently
the child of a ewe like this.

The sheep crowded still closer together as they reached the beginning of the
sheep-path; and now the man's face may be said to have taken on two coats of
expressiona stern judicial look with a smile underneath. The thought that he
was about to execute Justice occupied his mind wholly as the old wether led them
into the strait and narrow way. With the object of catching the ewe, he ran on
ahead toward the path, beside which he stationed himself, halfway up the
hillock, just as the head of the column was coming; and when the misbehaved
mother came trotting along he laid hands upon her and pulled her out of the
procession. At this, the lamb, which had become a very warm spot on his breast,
said something which sounded very much like
Ma-a-a
; whereupon he decided
that it might as well have supper at once, after which it could follow afoot.
The lamb, having been carried so far through life, came down rather carelessly
on its newly unfolded legs and stumbled; but it soon picked up what it had
learned of the laws of mechanics and fell to supper forthwith. The man held the
ewe as before, and when he judged the lamb held a sufficiency, he hauled her
away toward prison, pulling her unceremoniously out of the lamb's mouth. And
then the lamb, instead of following, stood braced on the spot as if unable to
comprehend that such a thing was possible. It let out a quavering complaint, a
melting infant cry, at which the man stopped and turned his head, and, seeing it
standing there and looking ahead in a wooden sort of way, he returned to get it,
marching the ewe down the hill again.

"I hope I'll have five hundred like you," he said, scooping it up under his
arm. "Yes, I do. You'll have me talking to myself yet. Yes, you will."

For a sheep-man to talk to himself is considered a bad sign; but the present
hermit had no chance to go farther in this course. The dog, dashing suddenly
ahead, stopped at the corner of the shack and growled. So occupied had the
herder been with his distracting duties that he had not taken much notice of the
shack as he drew nearer to it; but now that the dog raised the alarm he looked
and saw a blue wraith of smoke hovering over the roof. His fire-hole, it seemed,
was lit. This was not unwelcome news, as any one may imagine who has lived even
a few days so utterly alone. But whether the visitor was a stranger or a friend
was made a matter of doubt by the conduct of the dog, who was barking and
growling and wagging his tail. And his only change in conduct towards his friend
the enemy consisted in doing it all more industriously, making threats with one
end of himself and waving a welcome with the other. But no sound came from the
other side of the shack. The intruder did not stand forth and show himself. The
herder wondered that his approach had not been discovered. In the meantime the
ewe, which he had absent-mindedly let go of, had made her escape and was again
mingling with the multitude which was now running pell-mell into the corral. It
seemed strange that the person behind the shack did not step forth. Being now
free of the ewe (who had in no wise thwarted Justice by her act), he proceeded
to investigate his home. And when he reached the corner of the shack he sawa
Woman.