So a shepherd sent thee hither to buy a ram from me?  No, Jesus replied, he said thou wouldst not sell.  Then he was an honester shepherd than I thought for:  he would have saved thee a vain journey, and it would have been well hadst thou listened to his counsel, for I will not part with the breed; and my hope is that my son will not be tempted to part with the breed, for it is through our sheep that we have made our riches, such small riches as we possess, he added, lest he should appear too rich in the eyes of a stranger.  If thou’lt not sell I must continue my journey farther, Jesus answered.  In quest of a ram? the shepherd said.  But thou’lt not find any but long-backed brutes tucked up in the belly that offend the eye and are worse by far than a hole in the pocket.  With such rams the hills abound.  But get thee the best, though the best may be bad, for every man must work according to his tools.

If thou asked me for anything but my breed of sheep I would have given it, for thy face and thy speech please me, but as well ask me for my wife or my daughter as for my rams.  Be it so, Jesus answered, and he rose to continue his way, but his host said that having taken meat and drink in his house he must sleep in it too, and Jesus, being tired, accepted the bed offered to him.  He could not have fared farther; there was no inn nor public guest-room, and in the morning his host might be in the humour to part with a ram for a great sum of money.  But the morning found his host in the same humour regarding his breed of sheep—­determined to keep it; but in all other things willing to serve his guest.  Jesus bade him good-bye, sorry he could not persuade him but liking him all the same.

In two hours he was near the cultivated lands of Caesarea, and it seemed to him that his best chance of getting news of a ram would be to turn westward, and finding bed and board in every village, he travelled far and wide in search of the fine rams that he had once caught sight of in those parts.  But the rams of yore seemed to have disappeared altogether from the country:  thou mayest journey to Caesarea and back again, but thou’lt not find anything better than that I offer thee one man said to Jesus, whereupon Jesus turned his back upon Caesarea and began the return journey sad and humble, but with hope still a-flutter in his heart, for he continued to inquire after rams all the way till he came one bright morning to the village in which lived the owner of the great breed of sheep that he coveted, honourably coveted, he muttered to himself, but coveted heartily.

The sun was well up at the time, and Jesus had come by the road leading up from the coast.  He had passed over the first ridge, and had begun to think that he must be near the village in which the man lived who owned the great breed of sheep when his thoughts were interrupted by a lamb bleating piteously, and, looking round, he saw one running hither and thither, seeking his dam.  Now the lamb seeming to him a