A 557269
THE
STORY
BOOK
OF
SCIENCE
JEAN
HENRI
FABRE
1817 SCIENTIA
ARTES
VERITAS LIBRARY OF IGAN CHTHE MI TY I S R E V OF UNI
PLURICUS UMUM
TUEBOR
SI-QUERIS PENINS
ULAM AMENAM
CIRCUM
SPICE
From the Library of A. W. Diack
CHAPTER XV THE FLEECE
S was agreed upon the day before, Jacques A made ready for the performance . To keep the patients from moving, they were obliged to make them lie down, their feet tied, between the two inclined planks of a rack. ground.
Steel knives shone on the
As for them, innocent victims of the needs
of man, they were already bound and lying on their sides.
With gentle resignation they awaited their
sad fate .
Were they going to be slain ?
they were to be shorn .
Oh, no :
Jacques took a sheep by its
feet, placed it between the two planks of the rack, and, with large scissors, began, cra- cra-cra, to cut off the wool . one piece.
Little by little, the fleece fell all in
When the sheep had been despoiled , it
ran free to one side, ashamed and chilly. just given its covering to clothe man .
It had
Jacques put
another one on the rack, and the scissors began to move. "Tell me, Jacques, " said Jules, " are not the sheep very cold when they have had their wool cut off? See how that one trembles that you have just shorn . " "Never mind that : I have chosen a fine day for it . The sun is warm.
By to- morrow they won't feel
the need of their wool.
And besides , ought not the 64
65
THE FLEECE
sheep to suffer a little cold so that we may be
warm ?" " We warm ?
How?"
" You astonish me. You
do
not
know
that, you who read so many
books ?
Well,
with this wool they will make you stock ings knitted and things for this win ter ; they
will
even
Spinning -wheel
make cloth, fine cloth for clothes ." "Peuh !"
exclaimed Emile .
" This wool is too
dirty and ugly to make stockings , knitted things , and cloth. " "Dirty at present, " Jacques agreed , " but it will be washed in the river, and when it has become very white Mother Ambroisine will work it on her spin ning-wheel and make yarn of it.
This yarn knitted
with needles will become stockings that one is very glad to have on one's feet when obliged to run in the snow. " " I have never seen red, green, blue sheep ; and yet there are red, green, blue, and other colored wools, " said Emile. "They dye the white wool that the sheep gives us ; they put it into boiling water with drugs and color ing matter, and it comes out of that water with a color that stays."
" And cloth ?" " And cloth is made with threads of wool like
THE STORY-BOOK OF SCIENCE
66
those of stockings ; but in order to weave these threads, make them cross each other regularly, and convert them into fabric, you must have complicated machines , weaving looms that cannot be had in our houses .
These are only found in large factories
used for manufacturing woolen goods. " " Then these trousers that I have on come from the sheep ; this vest ; my cravat, stockings too . am dressed in the spoils of the sheep ?"
I
This from
Jules . "Yes , to defend ourselves from the cold, we take the sheep's
wool .
The poor beast furnishes its
fleece for our clothes, its milk and flesh for our nourishment, its skin for our gloves. the life of our domestic animals .
We live on
The ox gives us his
strength, flesh , hide ; the cow, besides, gives us milk . The donkey, mule, horse, work for us . As soon as they are dead they leave us their skin, of which we make leather for our shoes .
The hen gives us eggs ,
the dog puts his intelligence at our service .
And
yet there are people who , without any motive , maltreat these animals without which we should be so poor ; who let them suffer hunger and beat them unmercifully !
Never imitate those heartless ones ; it
would be an insult to God, who has given us the donkey, ox, sheep, and other animals.
When I think
that these valuable creatures give us all , even to their very life, I would share my last crust with them. "
And the shears meanwhile continued their cra -cracra; and the fleece fell.