Every one is familiar with the sheep-shearing scene in Thomson's "Seasons:" "Heavy and dripping, to the breezy brow Slow move the harmless race; where, as they spread Their dwelling treasures to the sunny ray, Inly disturb'd, and wond'ring what this wild Outrageous tumult means, their loud complaints The country fill; and, toss'd from rock to rock, Incessant bleatings run around the hills.

Mingling with these discordant sounds might be heard the bellowing of the beasts which were tethered on the outside of the walls of Jerusalem, and the plaintive bleating of the lambs.

All was quiet outside, except for the hoarse turmoil of the force and a distant bleating of sheep.

The thick stench of the burning clothing, the odor of blood, the piteous bleating of the doomed creatures sickened me; and I made my way out of the barn and down to the river, where I stripped and waded out to wash me and my clothes.

O surely not, for such as these Those baby limbs are flung in lightsome capers; Those puny bleatings were not meant to please Facetious writers for the daily papers; Let baser beasts inspire the obvious wheeze, Wombats and wart-hogs, tortoises and tapirs; These lack the subtle spell thy presence flings About the spirit tuned to higher things.

The harsh spring wind came rioting up the valley, to fling itself on the broad sides of the pikes; the lambs made a sad bleating; the water murmured in the ghyll beyond the house; the very sunshine was clear and cold.

As we stopped for our noon-tide refreshment, and dismounting threw ourselves on the fresh herbage just at the verge of a pleasant thicket, we were startled by a tender bleating near us, and presently, breaking its way through the low branches, there came upon us a sweet little dappled fawn, evidently in search of its mother.

An intense stillness reigned without, broken occasionally by the despairing bleating of thirst-stricken sheep.

To the cries of affright from birds of every species, to the uneasy and distant bleating of the goats, succeeds a plaintive moaning, like the voice of a wailing infant.

A faint bleating of sheep came down the hill, and the beck splashed softly among the stones.

On the mountain side a flock of dark-fleeced sheep was grazing; and when any of them discovered a blade of grass among the rocks, they would begin calling to one another with a melancholy bleating.