at all was right,
came back to the house. After a short time the shepherd said the same
words again, and the dog repeated his look-out; but on the false alarm
being a third time given, the dog got up, and wagging his tail, looked
his master in the face with so comical an expression of interrogation,
that we could not help laughing aloud at him, on which, with a slight
growl, he laid himself down in his warm corner, with an offended air, as
if determined not to be made a fool of again."

Mr. Hogg, the Ettrick shepherd, is the person of all others to give an
adequate idea of the shepherd's dog, and I use very nearly his own
words. "My dog Sirrah, was beyond all comparison the best dog I ever
saw; he was of a surly, unsocial temper; disdaining all flattery, he
refused to be caressed; but his attention to my commands and interests
will never again, perhaps, be equalled by any of the canine race. I
thought I discovered a sort of sullen intelligence in his countenance,
notwithstanding his dejected and forlorn appearance; I gave a drover a
guinea for him. 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 he
discovered that it was his duty to do so, and that it obliged me, I can
never forget with what eagerness and anxiety he learned his 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 pressed hard in accomplishing the task that he was put to, he had
expedients of the moment, that bespoke a great share of the reasoning
faculty.

"On one occasion, about 700 lambs, which were under his care at weaning
time, broke up at midnight, and scampered off, in three divisions,
across the neighbouring hills, in spite of all that he and an assistant
could do to keep them together. The night was so dark, that we 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 around, but of neither the lambs
nor Sirrah could they obtain the slightest trace. They had n