The Greedy Shepherd

: STORIES FROM IRELAND
: Boys And Girls Bookshelf

Once upon a time there lived in the South Country two brothers, whose

business it was to keep sheep. No one lived on that plain but shepherds,

who watched their sheep so carefully that no lamb was ever lost.



There was none among them more careful than these two brothers, one of

whom was called Clutch, and the other Kind. Though brothers, no two men

could be more unlike in disposition. Clutch thought of nothing but how br />
to make some profit for himself, while Kind would have shared his last

morsel with a hungry dog. This covetous mind made Clutch keep all his

father's sheep when the old man was dead, because he was the eldest

brother, allowing Kind nothing but the place of a servant to help him in

looking after them.



For some time the brothers lived peaceably in their father's cottage,

and kept their flock on the grassy plain, till new troubles arose

through Clutch's covetousness.



One midsummer it so happened that the traders praised the wool of

Clutch's flock more than all they found on the plain, and gave him the

highest price for it. That was an unlucky thing for the sheep, for after

that Clutch thought he could never get enough wool off them. At shearing

time nobody clipped so close as Clutch, and, in spite of all Kind could

do or say, he left the poor sheep as bare as if they had been shaven.

Kind didn't like these doings, but Clutch always tried to persuade him

that close clipping was good for the sheep, and Kind always tried to

make him think he had got all the wool. Still Clutch sold the wool, and

stored up his profits, and one midsummer after another passed. The

shepherds began to think him a rich man, and close clipping might have

become the fashion but for a strange thing which happened to his flock.



The wool had grown well that summer. He had taken two crops off the

sheep, and was thinking of a third, when first the lambs, and then the

ewes, began to stray away; and, search as the brothers would, none of

them was ever found again. The flocks grew smaller every day, and all

the brothers could find out was that the closest clipped were the first

to go.



Kind grew tired of watching, and Clutch lost his sleep with vexation.

The other shepherds, to whom he had boasted of his wool and his profits,

were not sorry to see pride having a fall. Still the flock melted away

as the months wore on, and when the spring came back nothing remained

with Clutch and Kind but three old ewes. The two brothers were watching

these ewes one evening when Clutch said:



"Brother, there is wool to be had on their backs."



"It is too little to keep them warm," said Kind. "The east wind still

blows sometimes." But Clutch was off to the cottage for the bag and

shears.



Kind was grieved to see his brother so covetous, and to divert his mind

he looked up at the great hills. As he looked, three creatures like

sheep scoured up a cleft in one of the hills, as fleet as any deer; and

when Kind turned he saw his brother coming with the bag and shears, but

not a single ewe was to be seen. Clutch's first question was, what had

become of them; and when Kind told him what he saw, the eldest brother

scolded him for not watching better.



"Now we have not a single sheep," said he, "and the other shepherds will

hardly give us room among them at shearing time or harvest. If you like

to come with me, we shall get service somewhere. I have heard my father

say that there were great shepherds living in old times beyond the

hills; let us go and see if they will take us for sheep-boys."



Accordingly, next morning Clutch took his bag and shears, Kind took his

crook and pipe, and away they went over the plain and up the hills. All

who saw them thought that they had lost their senses, for no shepherd

had gone there for a hundred years, and nothing was to be seen but wide

moorlands, full of rugged rocks, and sloping up, it seemed, to the very

sky.



By noon they came to the stony cleft up which the three old ewes had

scoured like deer; but both were tired, and sat down to rest. As they

sat there, there came a sound of music down the hills as if a thousand

shepherds had been playing on their pipes. Clutch and Kind had never

heard such music before, and, getting up, they followed the sound up the

cleft, and over a wide heath, till at sunset they came to the hill-top,

where they saw a flock of thousands of snow-white sheep feeding, while

an old man sat in the midst of them playing merrily on his pipe.



"Good father," said Kind, for his eldest brother hung back and was

afraid, "tell us what land is this, and where we can find service; for

my brother and I are shepherds, and can keep flocks from straying,

though we have lost our own."



"These are the hill pastures," said the old man, "and I am the ancient

shepherd. My flocks never stray, but I have employment for you. Which of

you can shear best?"



"Good father," said Clutch, taking courage, "I am the closest shearer in

all the plain country; you would not find enough wool to make a thread

on a sheep when I have done with it."



"You are the man for my business," said the old shepherd. "When the moon

rises, I will call the flock you have to shear."



The sun went down and the moon rose, and all the snow-white sheep laid

themselves down behind him. Then up the hills came a troop of shaggy

wolves, with hair so long that their eyes could scarcely be seen. Clutch

would have fled for fear, but the wolves stopped, and the old man said:



"Rise and shear--this flock of mine have too much wool on them."



Clutch had never shorn wolves before, yet he went forward bravely; but

the first of the wolves showed its teeth, and all the rest raised such a

howl that Clutch was glad to throw down his shears and run behind the

old man for safety.



"Good father," cried he, "I will shear sheep, but not wolves!"



"They must be shorn," said the old man, "or you go back to the plains,

and them after you; but whichever of you can shear them will get the

whole flock."



On hearing this, Kind caught up the shears Clutch had thrown away in his

fright, and went boldly up to the nearest wolf. To his great surprise,

the wild creature seemed to know him, and stood quietly to be shorn.

Kind clipped neatly, but not too closely, and when he had done with one,

another came forward, till the whole flock were shorn. Then the man

said:



"You have done well; take the wool and the flock for your wages, return

with them to the plain, and take this brother of yours for a boy to keep

them."



Kind did not much like keeping wolves, but before he could answer they

had all changed into the very sheep which had strayed away, and the hair

he had cut off was now a heap of fine and soft wool.



Clutch gathered it up in his bag, and went back to the plain with his

brother. They keep the sheep together till this day, but Clutch has

grown less greedy, and Kind alone uses the shears.