280 NATURAL niSTORY READER. 



place at the fireside and went out to a green bank beside a 

 pond, where he lay down, and no persuasions could induce 

 him to return to the house, lie wagged his tail a little 

 when kindly spoken to, but he continued to lie in the same 

 spot, and would not rise. He refused food, and in two 

 days he was dead. He seems to have felt that his day was 

 over, that his services were no longer valued, and his old 

 place no longer his, and took it all to signify that his time 

 was come to die. His death, however, seems not to have 

 been the result of mere old age, but to have been hastened 

 by his wounded feelings. 



12. The Ettrick shepherd gives the following graphic 

 account of his dog Sirrah : " He was, beyond all compari- 

 son, the best dog I ever saw. He was of a surly, unsocial 

 temper, disdaining all flattery ; he refused to be caressed, 

 but his attentions to my commands and interests will never 

 again, perhaps, be equaled by any of the canine race. 

 When I first saw him a drover was leading him by a rope ; 

 he was both lean and hungry, and far from being a beau- 

 tiful animal, for he was almost all black, and had a grim 

 face, striped with dark brown. The man had bought 

 him of a boy somewhere on the border for three shillings, 

 and had fed him very ill on the journey. I thought I 

 discovered a sort of sullen intelligence in his countenance, 

 notwithstanding his dejected and forlorn appearance. I 

 gave the drover a guinea for him, and I believe there was 

 never a guinea so well laid out, at least I am satisfied I 

 never laid one out to so good a purpose. 



13. "He was scarcely a year old, and knew so little of 

 herding that he had never turned a sheep in his life ; but, 

 as soon as lie discovered that it was his duty to do so, and 

 that it obliged me, I can never forget with what anxiety 

 and eagerness he learned his different evolutions. He 

 would try every way deliberately, till he found out what I 

 wanted him to do, and when once I made him understand 



