84 ANECDOTES OF ANIMALS. 



and looked into the byre [farm-yard], where she was, 

 and finding that all was right, came back to the house. 

 After a short time the shepherd said the same words 

 again, and the dog repeated his lookout ; but on the 

 false alarm being a third time given, the dog got up, 

 and wagging his tail, looked his master in the face 

 with so comical an expression of interrogation, that we 

 could not help laughing aloud at him, on which, with a 

 slight growl, he laid himself down in his warm corner, 

 with an offended air, as if determined not to be made a 

 fool of again.' 



Mr. Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, is the person of all 

 others to give an adequate idea of the shepherd's dog, 

 and I use very nearly his own words. ' My dog Sirrah 

 was beyond all comparison the best dog I ever saw ; he 

 was of a surly, unsocial temper ; disdaining all flattery, 

 he refused to be caressed; but his attention to my 

 commands and interests will never again, perhaps, be 

 equalled by any of the canine race. I thought I dis- 

 covered a sort of sullen intelligence in his countenance, 

 notwithstanding his dejected and forlorn appearance. I 

 gave a drover a guinea for him. He was scarcely a year 

 old, and knew so little of herding, that he had never 

 turned a sheep in his life ; but as soon as he discovered 

 that it was his duty to do so, and that it obliged me, I can 

 never forget with what eagerness and anxiety he learned 

 his evolutions. He would try every way deliberately, till 

 he found out what I wanted him to do, and when I once 

 .made him understand a direction, he never forgot or mis- 

 took it again. Well as I knew him, he often astonished 

 me ; for when pressed hard in accomplishing the task 

 that he was put to, he had expedients of the moment, 

 that bespoke a great share of the reasoning faculty. 



