3.  Then said Harry:  ’Let us try mother’s plan of keeping quite still and letting them see that we don’t want to hurt them.’

4.  So they sat down under a hedge and looked at the sheep for a long time, and soon one and another began to come near, eating away at the grass.

[Illustration]

5.  ‘I like that sound of tearing off the grass, don’t you?’ said Dora.

‘Do you see they swallow it all at once?’ said Harry.  ’What would mother say to us if we ate without chewing?’

6.  ‘There is some chewing going on, though.  Look over there!’ and she showed him some sheep that were lying down in the grass.

7.  ’Oh, now I know!  Don’t you remember, Dora, father told us once what the cow does.  It was that day we had tea at the farm.’

8.  ’No, I don’t remember.  We saw the cows milked, and I had some new milk in a glass.  I don’t think father told me!’

9.  ’Yes, he did.  You must have forgotten.  He said that the cow sent her food down into a big bag inside, and then it went into a smaller bag, where it was rolled up into little balls.  And when the cow lay down to rest, she brought them up into her mouth and chewed them well.’

10.  ’I should think the sheep must be doing the same thing.  Look at this fat one close by!  She is just sitting down.  Now watch!’

’Yes, I can see her chewing!  How funny it is!  They all look as if they liked it, don’t they?’

THE SHEEP.

la’-zy pleas’-ant dai’-sies clothes chil’-ly dew’-y scant’-y com’-mon brown mer’-ry wool’-ly coat

    1.  ’Lazy sheep, pray tell me why
        In the pleasant fields you lie,
        Eating grass and daisies white,
        From the morning till the night? 
        Everything can something do;
        Oh what kind of use are you?’

    2.  ’Nay, my little fellow, nay,
        Do not serve me so, I pray: 
        Don’t you see the wool that grows
        On my back to make you clothes? 
        Cold and very cold you’d be,
        If you had not wool from me.

    3.  ’True, it seems a pleasant thing,
        To nip the daisies in the spring;
        But many chilly nights I pass,
        On the cold and dewy grass,
        Or pick a scanty dinner where
        All the common’s brown and bare.

    4.  ’Then the farmer comes at last,
        When the merry spring is past,
        And cuts my woolly coat away,
        To warm you in the winter’s day. 
        Little Master, this is why
        In the pleasant fields I lie.’

TURNIPS.

white ly’-ing tur’-nip picked win’-ter din’-ner read’-y but’-ter sor’-ry heard peo’-ple bread pressed meal mean jok’-ing

1.  ’What are those sheep eating over there, at the far end of the field?  There is something white all over the grass.  What can it be?’