ANECDOTE OF MR. HOGG's DOG. 8/ 



the man took on his back, and went his way rejoicing. 

 John called him by all the ill names he could think 

 of; which the dog seemed to take in very good part. 

 Such language seemed to be his flattery to his dog. 



Mr. Hogg relates of his own dog, Sirrah, feats yet 

 more astonishing. I will give it you in his own 

 words, or otherwise the narrative would lose much of 

 its native energy and grace.* " I was sent to a place 

 in Tweeddale called Stanhope, to bring home a wild 

 ewe that had strayed from home. The place lay at a 

 distance of fifteen miles, and my way to it was over 

 steep hills, and athwart deep glens ; there was no 

 path, and neither Sirrah nor I had ever travelled the 

 road before. When I left the people of the house, Mr. 

 Tweedie, the farmer, said to me, ' Do you really 

 suppose that you will drive that sheep over these hills, 

 and out through the midst of all the sheep in the 

 country V I said I would try to do it. ' Then let me 

 tell you,' said he, ' that you may as well try to 

 travel to yon sun.' Our way, as I said, lay all over 

 wild hills, and through the middle of flocks of sheep : 

 I seldom got sight of the ewe, for she was sometimes 

 a mile before me, sometimes two : but Sirrah kept her 

 in command the whole way ; never suffered her to 

 mix with the other sheep, nor, as far as I could judge, 

 ever to deviate twenty yards from the track by which 

 * Shepherd's Calendar, p. 302. 



