" He -was scarcely a year old, and knew so little of herding 

 that he had never turned a sheep in his hfe ; hut as soon as he 

 discovered that it was his duty to do so, and that it ohliged 

 me, I can never forget with what eagerness and anxiety he 

 learned his evolutions. He would try every way deliberately, 

 tin he found out what I wanted him to do ; and when I once 

 made him to understand a direction he never forgot or mistook 

 it again. Well as I knew him he often astonished me, for 

 often, when pressed hard in accompHshing the tasks that he 

 was put to, he had expedients of the moment that bespoke a 

 great share of the reasoning faculty. 



" On one occasion, about seven hundred lambs, which were 

 under his care at feeding-time, broke up at midnight, and scam- 

 pered off in three divisions, across the neighbouring bills, in 

 spite of all that he and an assistant could do to keep them 

 together. The night was so dark that we could not see 

 ' Sirrah ' (the dog's name), but the faithful animal heard his 

 master lament his absence in words which of all others were 

 sure to set him most on the alert, and without more ado he 

 silently set off in quest of the recreant flocks. Meanwhile the 

 shepherd and his companions did not fail to do aU in their 

 power to recover their lost charge. They spent the whole night 

 in scouring the hills for miles round ; but of neither the lambs 

 nor Sirrah could they find the sUghtest trace. They had 

 nothing for it, day having dawned, but to return to their master 

 and inform him that they had lost the whole flock of lambs, 

 and did not know what had become of one of them. On our 

 way home, however, we discovered a lot of lambs at the bottom 

 of a deep ravine, and the indefatigable Sirrah standing in front 

 of them looking round for some reHef, but still true to his 

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

 view we concluded it was one of the divisions, whirh Sirrah 

 had been unable to manage tfll he arrived at that commanding 

 situation. But what was our astonishment when we discovered 

 that not one lamb of the entire flock was wanting ! How he 

 had got all the divisions collected in the dark, is beyond my 

 comprehension. The charge was left to himself from midnight 

 tiU the rising sun, and if all the shepherds in the forest had 

 been there to have assisted him, he could not have effected it 

 with greater promptitude." 



The same gentleman likewise narrates a story in which a 

 sheop-dog, through over zeal, brought his master to the gallows. 

 The man had resolved to make an adventure in the crime of 



