152 REMINISCENCES OF THE LEWS. 



to believe tliat I was ratlier done, and my poor 

 dog very much maligned. One of Grouse's 

 judges was the everlasting ground officer, 

 whose two sheep dogs were just about the 

 hour of this massacre out on the rantan, as 

 the soldiers say in the district, for sometime. 

 He never said a word about this then, but 

 quietly and secretly destroyed his colleys. 

 This, however, oozed out some time after, but 

 too late to save my pocket, though it did 

 account for the very little uproar the people 

 themselves made at the time. The whole thing, 

 however, did me no harm ; my grouse certainly 

 increased, and I never afterwards had a com- 

 plaint of a dog of mine. 



Sheep, then, were the only thing I had to 

 fear, and I never had more than one or two 

 incorrigible instances. One very odd case I 

 must record. The most inveterate sheep-killer 

 I ever had was a very good, staunch dog, very 

 handsome, and a great goer. He had just 

 killed a sheep, for which w^e had inflicted con- 

 dign punishment. Shortly after this, the very 

 same day, he went hard at another, and was 

 handsomely running into him, when he turned 

 short and stood like a rock. We went up to 

 him, and killed grouse over him. But there 

 was no keeping him after this, and, to my great 



