OUR FOUR-FOOTED COMPANIONS. 281 



a direction, he never forgot or mistook it again. Well as 

 I knew him, he often astonished me ; for, when hard pressed 

 in accomplishing the task that he was put to, lie had ex- 

 pedients of the moment that bespoke a great share of the 

 reasoning faculty. 



14. "On one occasion about seven hundred lambs, 

 which were under his care at weaning time, broke away at 

 midnight and scampered, in three divisions, across the hills, 

 in spite of all I and my assistant could do to keep them to- 

 gether. The night was so dark that we could not see Sir- 

 rah, but he heard me lament their 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 rec- 

 reant flock. We spent the whole night in scouring the 

 hills for miles around, but neither of the lambs or Sirrah 

 could we obtain the slightest trace. It was the most ex- 

 traordinary circumstance that ever happened in the annals 

 of pastoral life. At dawn we set out on our return, with the 

 comforting assurance that the whole flock of lambs was lost, 

 and that we did not know what had become of one of them. 



15. "On our way home, however, we discovered a lot 

 of lambs at the bottom of a deep ravine, and the indefati- 

 gable Sirrah, standing in front of them, looking around 

 for some relief, but still true to his charge. The sun was 

 then up, and, when we first came in view, we concluded 

 that it was one of the divisions which Sirrah had been un- 

 able to manage until he came to that commanding situa- 

 tion. But what was our astonishment when we discovered 

 that not one lamb of the whole flock was missing. The 

 charge was left entirely to himself from midnight until the 

 rising sun ; and if all the shepherds in the forest had been 

 there to assist him, they could not have effected it with 

 greater propriety. All that I can say further is that I 

 never felt so grateful to any creature under the sun as I 

 did to my honest Sirrah that morning. 



