324 ALL ABOUT DOGS 



which he had never before seen, and quite a contrast to 

 his native home in Skye. I of course gave him up as 

 lost, which I much regretted, as his cool, independent 

 manner and quaint, jaunty air had greatly endeared 

 him to me, during the time we had been acquainted. 

 However, when I returned to Clifton, I had to pass one 

 place, near where some of the houses of the Clifton col- 

 lege masters now stand, where four roads meet, by one 

 of which I must come to reach my mother's house. 

 On the space in the centre, and commanding a view of 

 these four, sat " Fraochen," waiting our approach. How 

 he managed to get over the ten or twelve miles of quite 

 unknown country, (as I found that he, like ourselves, 

 came back by a different route from the one we went by,) 

 I do not know, but I asked several travellers we met, if 

 they had noticed a dog coming towards them along the 

 road, and most of them answered they did, and that he 

 was " running like steam," or he " wasn't wasting 

 much time about it," etc. 



He lived with me until his death from old age, 

 many years afterwards but was quite a character 

 in many ways. One of his peculiarities was, if he 

 was out with my wife, with whom he was a 

 prime favourite, without me, he considered her under 

 his special protection, no matter how many or how 

 large any of the other dogs out at same time might be, 

 and if he was on, ever so far in front, and he met any 

 rough-looking or suspicious character of the tramp 

 species, he would immediately return and walk close to 

 my wife's side, so as to come between her and the ob- 



