Some Poets Dozs. 



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shepherd's dog is a mongrel — "shaggy and lean and 

 shrewd, with pointed ears and tail cropped short, half 

 lurcher and half cur:" but in Scotland, "there still of 

 genuine breed, the colley, barking shrill-toned ' — 



" Indeed, thy Ball is a bold bigge car 

 And could make a joUy hole in their fur " — 



we meet with the beautiful beast, now so popular as a pet 

 in England, that Bums had before him in his glorious sketch 

 of the "TwaDogs"— 



" The tither was a ploughman's collie, 

 A rhyming,- ranting, roving biilie, 

 \Mia for his friend and comrade had him. 

 And in his freaks had Luath ca'd him. 

 After some dog in Highland sang. 

 Was made lang syne — Lord knows how lang. 

 He was a gash an' faithfu' tyke. 

 As ever lap a sheugh or dyke. 

 His honest, sonsie, baws'nt face, 

 Aye gat him friends in ilka place ; 

 His breast was white, his towzie back 

 Weel dad wi' coat o' glossy black ; 

 His gawcie tail, wi' upward curl. 

 Hung o'er his hurdies wi' a swirL" 



They are part of "the household" of the shepherd — 

 " two brave dogs tried in many a storm made all their 

 household " — and the reaper's children lie on the summer's 

 afternoon " curled up with the sheep-dogs asleep." For to 

 him they are veritably his eyes and his ears, and his legs 

 besides. 



" Waving his hat, the shepherd from the vale 

 Directs his winding dog the clifEi to scale 

 That, barking busy, 'mid the glittering rocks 

 Hunts, where he points, the intercepted flocks." 



In the house their honesty and discipline raise them 



