George and Rebecca

George and Rebecca’s father-daughter relationship is hidden from the flock and disclosed in two stages: the sheep recognize George’s family scent on Rebecca, while Rebecca later tells a story that turns their estrangement and missed reunion into a fable. Their bond is marked not by an openly shared history but by secrecy, a quarrel, and the consequences of waiting too long.

Recognition and Secrecy

When Rebecca appears in Glennkill, Maude asks whether the sheep had detected what she suspected. Several confirm that Rebecca carries the family scent of George—sweat, skin, and hair—and identify her unmistakably as his daughter. The recognition depends on the sheep’s intimate, bodily knowledge rather than on any public introduction. To them, the evidence is immediate even though its human meaning remains uncertain. The flock struggles to understand what the connection means. Sheep do not attach importance to the identity of the ram who sired them, so they cannot assume that humans experience parentage in the same way. Their puzzlement deepens when they reason that Beth, whom they have associated with George, is not Rebecca’s mother. The daughter’s appearance therefore opens a family question the sheep can smell but cannot initially interpret.

Rebecca’s Search for George

Rebecca tells Beth that she wants to learn about George’s life and death, and that helping Glennkill’s tourist trade would be welcome but is not her real purpose. When Beth asks whether she has come as a police investigator, Rebecca says she is there for personal reasons. She blushes and does not explain further. Her reluctance makes the family connection present as an unresolved private matter, not simply an inquiry into the circumstances of George’s death.

The Secret Father in Rebecca’s Story

Later, Rebecca tells the sheep a story about a little girl with two fathers: one secret and one openly acknowledged. The girl is not supposed to see the secret father, but they meet and care deeply for one another; her mother disapproves and cannot prevent the relationship. After the girl and her secret father quarrel over something trivial, she tries to make him angry, hurting herself in the process. They then stop speaking for a long time. A letter eventually tells the girl that her father plans to travel to Europe and wants to see her first. She conceals her happiness and makes him wait; he waits until he dies. The story gives the sheep a narrative shape for what Rebecca has left unsaid. It presents George as the secret father and makes the missed meeting the painful consequence of their silence. Rebecca’s account is oblique rather than a direct explanation, but its details connect her personal search to George’s absence and death.

Estrangement and Aftermath

The relationship’s defining movement is from concealed closeness to separation: the father and daughter are fond of one another, quarrel, and remain estranged until an attempted reunion comes too late. Rebecca’s ironic manner with Beth and her hesitation to name her personal reason contrast with the tenderness in the story she tells. The sheep, who first register kinship through scent, hear her turn that kinship into a story of affection and loss. George’s death makes the delayed meeting irreversible, while Rebecca’s search keeps their relationship at the center of her effort to understand his life.