THE SHEPHERD'S, OR SHEEP DOG. 13 



liriuitiful cur; for he was all over black, and had a grim face striped with dark brown. The man had 

 bought him of a boy for three shillings, somewhere on the Border, and, doubtless, had used him vi-i-y 

 ill on the journey. Thinking he discovered a sort of sullen intelligence in his face, notwithstanding his 

 dejected and forlorn condition, Hogg gave the drover a guinea for him, and appropriated the captive to 

 himself. The dog was scarcely then a year old, and knew so little of herding, that he had never 

 turned sheep in his life ; but, as soon as he discovered it was his duty to do so, and that it would oblige 

 his master, he learned with great anxiety his different evolutions. He would try every way delibe- 

 rately, till he found out what he was wanted to do, and, when once he understood a direction, he never 

 forgot it or mistook it again. 



This dog, though of a sullen disposition, managed a flock with extraordinary skill. On one 

 occasion, about seven hundred lambs, which were under his care at weaning time, broke up at midnight, 

 and scampered off in three divisions across the hills, in spite of all that his master and an assistant lad 

 could do to keep them together. " Sirrah," cried the shepherd, in much sorrow, " my man, they're a' 

 awa'." The night was so dark that he could not see his dog ; but, no sooner did Sirrah hear these 

 words, than he quietly set off in search of the lambs. 







THE SCOTCH COLLIE. 



The shepherd and the lad did, meanwhile, what they could, and spent the whole night in scouring 

 the hills for miles around, but of neither the flock nor the dog could they find a trace. " It was," says 

 Hogg, " the most extraordinary pircumstance that had ever occurred in the annals of pastoral life. 

 As day had dawned, we had nothing for it but to return to our master, and tell him that we had lost 

 his whole flock of lambs, and knew not what was become of one of them. On our way home, however, 

 we discovered a body of lambs at the bottom of a deep ravine, and the indefatigable Sirrah standing in 

 front of them, looking all around for some relief, but still 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 

 divisions of the lambs that Sirrah had been unable to manage until he came to that commanding 

 situation. But what was our astonishment when we discovered by degrees that not one lamb of the 

 whole flock was wanting ! How he had got all the divisions collected in the dark is beyond my compre- 

 hension. The charge was left entirely to himself from midnight until the rising of the sun ; and, if all 

 the shepherds in the forest had been there to have assisted him, they could not have effected it with 

 greater propriety. All that I can further say is, that I never felt so grateful to any creature below 

 the sun as I did to my honest Sirrah that morning." 



Another of the shepherd's dogs, Hector, was the son and immediate successor of Sirrah. Though 

 not so valuable, he was far more interesting. One fact shows that he carried fidelity even to an 

 extreme. The darkness of the night prevented Hector from observing that the lambs were securely 

 shut in on even- side, and so he persisted in guarding what was already safe. On going to the fold at 



