THE SHEPHERD'S DOG. 93 



"the Ettrick Shepherd descanting on the sagacity and 

 perseverance of his favourite sheep-dog. His name was 

 Sirrali ; he told me the following extraordinary anecdote 

 of him, which I give in his own words : — About seven 

 liundred lambs, which were once under my care at 

 weaning time, broke up at midniglit, and scampered 

 off in three divisions across the hills, in spite of all 

 I and an assistant lad could do to keep them together. 

 " Sirrah, my man," said 1, in great affliction, " they are 

 awa'." The night was so dark that I could not see 

 Sirrah, but the faithful animal heard my words — words 

 such as of all others were sure to set him most on 

 the alert, and without much ado he silently set out in 

 search of the recreant flock. Meanwhile I and my com- 

 panion did not fail to do all in our power to recover 

 our lost charge. We spent the whole night in scoiuring 

 the hills for miles round, but of neither the lambs nor 

 Sirrah could we obtain the slightest trace. It was the 

 most extraordinary circumstance that had occurred in 

 my pastoral life. We had nothing for it (day having 

 dawned) but to return to oar master, and inform him 

 we had lost his whole flock of lambs, and knew not 

 what had become of them. On our way home, how- 

 ever, we discovered a body of lambs at the bottom of a 

 deep ravine, called the Flesh Cleuch, and the indefati- 

 gable Sirrah standing in front of them, looking all 

 around for some relief, but still standing true to his 

 charge. The sun was then up, and when we first came 

 in view of them we concluded it was one of the divi- 

 sions which Sirrah had been unable to manage until he 

 came to that commanding situation. But what was 

 our astonishment when we discovered by degTees that 

 not one lamb of the whole flock was wanting:. How he 



