If it proved poor, he turned devout immediately,
and spent the next six months calling on the saints for better luck,
and redoubling his exertions with the sheep.
On one of the posts of the shed short projecting slats were nailed,
like half-rounds of a ladder. Lightly as a rope-walker Felipe ran up
these, to the roof, and took his stand there, ready to take the
fleeces and pack them in the bag as fast as they should be tossed
up from below. Luigo, with a big leathern wallet fastened in front
of him, filled with five-cent pieces, took his stand in the centre of
the shed. The thirty shearers, running into the nearest pen, dragged
each his sheep into the shed, in a twinkling of an eye had the
creature between his knees, helpless, immovable, and the sharp
sound of the shears set in. The sheep-shearing had begun. No rest
now. Not a second's silence from the bleating, baa-ing, opening
and shutting, clicking, sharpening of shears, flying of fleeces
through the air to the roof, pressing and stamping them down in
the bales; not a second's intermission, except the hour of rest at
noon, from sunrise till sunset, till the whole eight thousand of the
Senora Moreno's sheep were shorn.
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