282 NETHER LOCHABER. 



in livid lash-like weals by the dog's nails, while they were hugging 

 each other and struggling in the water. " Albert " was of course 

 very little if at all to blame in the adventure, and his only punish- 

 ment — if what indeed was to him always a delight could be called 

 a punishment — was that, refusing to take him back into the boat, 

 he was obliged to swim a full half mile to the beach ; which, how- 

 ever, he easily reached before us. Our friend felt sore and 

 uncomfortable for a day or two, but was soon aU right again ; and 

 both he and we had got a les.son which we were not likely to forget 

 in a hurry, that a powerful dog, no matter how well meaning and 

 kindly his intentions, is rather a dangerous companion to a swimmer 

 ia puris naturalibus in deep water. 



But what has all this, it may be asked, to do with Mr. Frank 

 Buckland and his proverb that " Dog will not eat dog " f A little 

 patience, as is your wont, courteous reader, and we shall come to 

 the point without much more ado. When " Albert " was about 

 four years old, and as powerful, and perfect, and pleasant a dog as 

 ever growled in anger or barked with glee, it began to be rumoured 

 abroad that he was fast falling into bad habits — whether from 

 following evil example, or instinctively and proiprio motu, was 

 never determined. He was accused, in fact, of sheep-worrying, 

 and of course we couldn't and wouldn't believe a bit of it. Other 

 dogs might be guilty of such vulgar misconduct ; in the case of our 

 dog the thing was impossible. Wasn't he regularly and well fed ? 

 Didn't he sleep every night at our own bedroom door ? All this, of 

 course, we said, and urged, and argued, and furthermore we urged 

 a fact which seemed to us to be conclusive of our dog's innocence 

 of the great misdemeanour laid to his charge — we had sheep of our 

 own, and there were sheep belonging to others in our immediate 

 neighbourhood, and with none of these, we pointed out, had our 

 dog ever been known to make or meddle in any way further than 

 by an occasional deep hoio-woio ! which, though it sometimes made 



