_Of the Sheep released from the Wolf._
While Saint Patrick was a little boy, his aunt entrusted him with the
care of the sheep, and to these he diligently attended with his
aforementioned sister. For in that age no reproach was attached to
such employments when the sons of the chief men discharged the duties
of a shepherd; as the patriarch Jacob and his sons truly declared
before Pharao, that they, like their forefathers, were keepers of
sheep; and as the lawgiver Moses and the illustrious King David long
time labored in the shepherd's occupation. But as the boy Patrick was
one day in the fields with his flock, a wolf, rushing from the
neighboring wood, caught up a ewe-lamb, and carried it away. Returning
home at evening from the fold, his aunt chided the boy for negligence
or for sloth; yet he, though blushing at the reproof, patiently bore
all her anger, and poured forth his prayers for the restoration of the
ewe-lamb. In the next morning, when he brought the flock to the
pasture, the wolf ran up, carrying the lamb in his mouth, laid it at
Patrick's feet, and instantly returned to the wood. And the boy gave
thanks to the Lord, who, as he preserved Daniel from the hungry lions,
so now for his comfort had saved his lamb uninjured from the jaws of
the wolf.