ness
he learned his different evolutions. He would try every way
deliberately, till he found out what I wanted him to do; and, when I
once made him understand 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, he had expedients
of the moment that bespoke a great share of the reasoning faculty."

Among other remarkable exploits of Sirrah, illustrative of his
sagacity, Mr. Hogg relates that, upon one occasion, about seven hundred
lambs, which were under his care at weaning time, broke up at midnight,
and scampered off, in three divisions, across the neighboring hills, in
spite of all that he and an assistant could do to keep them together.
The night was so dark that he could not see Sirrah; but the faithful
animal heard his master 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 recreant flock. Meanwhile, the
shepherd and his companion did not fail to do all 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
obtain the slightest trace. It was the most extraordinary circumstance
that had ever occurred in the annals of pastoral life. They had nothing
to do, as day had dawned, but to return to their master, and inform him
that they had lost his whole flock of lambs, and knew not what was
become of one of them. "On our way home, however," says Mr. Hogg, "we
discovered a lot of lambs at the bottom of a deep ravine called the
Flesh Cleuch, and the indefatigable Sirrah standing in front of them,
looking round 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 unable to manage until he
came to that commanding situation. But what was our astonishment when
we discovered that not one lamb of the whole flock was wanting! How he
had got all the divisions collected in the dark is beyond my
comprehension. 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 have assisted him, they could not have effected it with
greater propriety. All that I can further say is, that I never felt so
grateful to any creature under the sun, as I d