THE ST. BERNARD DOG. 1 19 



before day. Resolving, at all events, to keep his hands dear 

 of them, he corrected his dog in great wrath, left the sheep 

 once more, and taking coUey with him, rode off a second 

 time. He had not ridden above a mile, till he perceived that 

 his assistant had again given him the slip; and suspecting 

 for what purpose, he was terribly alarmed as well as chagrined ; 

 for daylight now approached, and he durst not make a noise 

 calling on his dog, for fear of alarming the neighbourhood, 

 in a place where they were both well known. He resolved 

 therefore to abandon the animal to himself, and take a road 

 across the country which he was sure the other did not know, 

 and could not follow. He took that road; but being on 

 horseback, he could not get across the enclosed fields. He 

 at length came to a gate, which he shut behind him, and 

 went about half a mile farther, by a zigzag course, to a 

 farm-house where both his sister and sweetheart lived; and 

 at that place he remained imtil after breakfast time. The 

 people of this house were all examined on the trial, and no 

 one had either seen the sheep or heard them mentioned, save 

 one man, who came up to the aggressor as he was standing 

 at the stable-door, and told him that his dog had the sheep 

 safe enough down at the Crooked Yett, and he needed not 

 hurry himself. He answered, that the sheep were not his — 

 they were young Mr, Thomson's, who had left them to his 

 charge, and he was in search of a man to drive them, which 

 made him come off his road." The fidelity of this animal 

 cost his master his life. 



The St. The St. Bernard Dog always honoured for 



Bemaxd Dog. his work's Sake, resembles the Newfoundland in 

 form, hair, colour, and size. "There is another race," says 

 Colonel Smith, "trained to the same service, with close 

 short hair, and more or less marked with grey, liver colour 

 and black clouds." Bass, a famous St. Bernard, the property 

 of Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, is thus described by him in 

 a letter to Mr. W. H. Lizars printed in Vol. XIX of "The 



Digitized by Microsoft® 



