r schooldays were now drawing to an end. His father,
though engaged as the shepherd at Dunglass, had other duties of a very
multifarious kind to discharge, and part of his shepherd work had been
done for him for some time by his eldest son, Thomas. But Thomas was
now old enough to earn a higher wage by other work on the home-farm
or in the woods, and so it came to be John's turn to take up the work
among the sheep. When his father told Mr. M'Gregor that John would
have to leave school, the schoolmaster was so moved with regret at the
thought of losing so promising a scholar, that he said that if John
could find time for any study during the day he would be glad to have
him come to his house two or three nights in the week, and to go over
with him then what he had learned. As Mr. M'Gregor had become more and
more solitary in his habits of late--he was a bachelor, and his aged
mother kept house for him--this offer was considered to be a very
remarkable proof of his regard, and it was all the more gratefully
accepted on that account.

It fortunately happened that the work to which John had now to turn
his hand allowed him an opportunity of carrying on his studies without
interfering with its efficiency. That work was of a twofold character.
He had to "look" the sheep, and he had to "herd" them. The looking
came first. Starting at six o'clock in the morning, accompanied by the
faithful collie "Cheviot," he made a round of all the grass-parks on
the home-farm, beginning down near the sea and thence working his way
round to a point considerably higher up than the mansion-house. His
instructions were to count the sheep in each field, so that he might
be able to tell whether they were all there, and also to see whether
they were all afoot and feeding. In the event of anything being wrong,
he was to report it to his father. The circuit was one of three or
four miles, and the last field to be looked was that in which were
gathered the fifty or sixty sheep that were to be brought out to the
unfenced lawns round the mansion-house and be herded there during
the day.

These sheep were generally to be found waiting close to the gate, and
when it was opened they could quite easily find their own way down to
their feeding-ground. As they passed slowly on, cropping the grass as
they went, John was able to leave them and go home for his breakfast
of porridge and milk. Breakfast having been despatched, and Cheviot
fed, he once more wrapp