ing draw you away. Do not say, I have stopped at
work long enough, I am sick of it. When tempted to give up, remember
the steady pointer.

THE YOUNG DOCTOR AND PINCHER.

One of the cleverest and most amusing of dogs was Pincher, a rough
Scotch terrier, belonging to Mrs Lee's brother. [See Mrs Lee's
"Anecdotes of Animals."] The boy had a great fancy to be a doctor.
Having manufactured a variety of surgical instruments out of flint
stones, he pretended to perform with them operations on Pincher, who
would lie perfectly still while his teeth were drawn, his limbs set, his
veins opened, or his wounds bandaged.

The pretended doctor, finally copying the process practised on pigs,
used to cut up his favourite entirely. The dog was laid on the table,
when he stuck out his legs as stiffly as possible. Preparations were
first made for cutting off his head; and immediately the flint was
passed across the throat it fell on one side, and remained so completely
without motion that it might have been thought the dog fancied it was
really off. Each leg in succession was then operated on, and as the
instrument passed round them the dog made them fall, putting them as
close as possible to the body. When the operation was concluded, the
boy used to exclaim, "Jump up, good dog;" and Pincher, bounding off the
table, would shake himself to life again.

SIRRAH, THE ETTRICK SHEPHERD'S DOG.

Sirrah, fortunately for his fame, possessed a master in James Hogg, the
Ettrick Shepherd, well able to recount his history. Hogg bought Sirrah
of a drover for a guinea, observing, notwithstanding his dejected and
forlorn appearance, a sort of sullen intelligence in his countenance.
Though he had never turned a sheep in his life, as soon as he discovered
it was his duty to do so he began with eagerness and anxiety to learn
his evolutions. He would try every way deliberately till he found out
what his master wanted him to do; and when once he understood a
direction he never forgot it again or mistook it.

Often, when hard pressed in accomplishing a task he was put to, he had
expedients for the moment that bespoke a great share of the reasoning
faculty. On one occasion about seven hundred lambs which were under
Hogg's care at weaning-time broke up at midnight, and scampered off in
three divisions across the neighbouring hills, in spite of all he and an
assistant could do to keep them together. The night was so dark that
Sirrah could not be s