The Haymeadow

At fourteen John Barron is asked, like his father and his father's father before him, to spend the summer taking care of their sheep in the haymeadow. John will be alone, except for two horses, four dogs, and six thousand sheep.

John doesn't feel up to the task, but he hopes that if he succeeds, he will finally please his undemonstrative father. Soon, John finds that the adage "things just happen to sheep" is true when the river floods, coyotes attack, and one of his dogs is hurt.

Yet through it all John relies on his own resourcefulness, ingenuity, and courage to bring the family's flock safely home.