The Sheep Dogs <vs* ^y ^> *^> 



(From Far from the Madding Crcncd) 



/~\A.BRIEL had two dogs. George, the 

 ^-^ elder, exhibited an ebony-tipped nose, sur- 

 rounded by a narrow margin of pink flesh, and 

 a coat marked in random splotches approximating 

 in colour to white and slaty grey ; but the grey, 

 after years of sun and rain, had been scorched 

 and washed out of the more prominent locks, 

 leaving them of a reddish-brown, as if the blue 

 component of the grey had faded, like the indigo 

 from the same kind of colour in Turner's pictures. 

 In substance it had originally been hair, but long 

 contact with sheep seemed to be turning it by 

 degrees into wool of a poor quality and staple. 



This dog had originally belonged to a shepherd 

 of inferior morals and dreadful temper, and the 

 result was that George knew the exact degrees of 

 condemnation signified by cursing and swearing 

 of all descriptions better than the wickedest old 

 man in the neighbourhood. Long experience had 

 so precisely taught the animal the difference 

 between such exclamations as " Come in ! " and 



" D ye, come in !" that he knew to a hair's 



breadth the rate of trotting back from the ewes' 

 tails that each call involved, if a staggerer with 

 the sheep-crook was to be escaped. Though old, 

 he was clever and trustworthy still. 

 O 193 



