Coo-oo-sheep!  Coo-oo-sh’p-cooshy-cooshy-coo-oo-sheep!”

The sheep were answering.  They were coming down a ravine, and Chad’s voice rang out above: 

“Somebody come across, an’ stand on each side o’ the holler.”

Dolph and Rube waded across then, and soon the sheep came crowding down the narrow ravine with Jack barking behind them and Chad shooing them down.  But for Dolph and Rube, Beelzebub would have led them up or down the river, and it was hard work to get him into the water until Jack, who seemed to know what the matter was, sharply nipped several sheep near him.  These sprang violently forward, the whole flock in front pushed forward, too, and Beelzebub was thrust from the bank.  Nothing else being possible, the old ram settled himself with a snort into the water and made for the other shore.  Chad and Jack followed and, when they reached the road, Beelzebub was again a prisoner; the sheep, swollen like sponges, were straggling down the river, and Dillons and Turners were standing around in silence.  Jack shook himself and dropped panting in the dust at his master’s feet, without so much as an upward glance or a lift of his head for a pat of praise.  As old Joel raised one foot heavily to his stirrup, he grunted, quietly: 

“Well, I be damned.”  And when he was comfortably in his saddle he said again, with unction: 

“I do be damned.  I’ll just take that dawg to help drive them sheep down to town.  Come on, boy.”

Chad started joyfully, but the old mother called from the door:  “Who’s a-goin’ to take this gal to school, I’d like to know?”

Old Joel pulled in his horse, straightened one leg, and looked all around—­first at the Dillons, who had started away, then at Dolph and Rube, who were moving determinedly after the sheep (it was Court Day in town and they could not miss Court Day), and then at Chad, who halted.

“Boy,” he said, “don’t you want to go to school—­you ought to go to school?”

“Yes,” said Chad, obediently, though the trip to town—­and Chad had never been to a town—­was a sore temptation.

“Go on, then, an’ tell the teacher I sent ye.  Here, Mammy—­eh, what’s yo’ name, boy?  Oh, Mammy—­Chad, here ‘ll take her.  Take good keer o’ that gal, boy, an’ learn yo’ a-b-abs like a man now.”

Melissa came shyly forward from the door and Joel whistled to Jack and called him, but Jack though he liked nothing better than to drive sheep lay still, looking at Chad.

“Go ’long, Jack,” said Chad, and Jack sprang up and was off, though he stopped again and looked back, and Chad had to tell him again to go on.  In a moment dog, men, and sheep were moving in a cloud of dust around a bend in the road and little Melissa was at the gate.