a neighbouring farm, and that
a dog very like his had been seen prowling about the fold; but in order
to determine the point, he would be visited, it was added, in the course
of the day, by the shepherd and a law-officer. The dog meanwhile,
however, conscious of guilt,--for dogs do seem to have consciences in
such matters,--was nowhere to be found, though, after the lapse of
nearly a week, he again appeared at the work; and his master, slipping a
rope round his neck, brought him to a deserted coal-pit half-filled with
water, that opened in an adjacent field, and flinging him in, left the
authorities no clue by which to establish his identity with the robber
and assassin of the fold."[43]

THE LAIRD OF BALNAMOON AND THE BROCK.

The laird, so Dean Ramsay had the story sent him, once riding past a
high steep bank, stopped opposite a hole in it, and said, "John, I saw a
brock gang in there."--"Did ye?" said John; "wull ye haud my horse,
sir?"--"Certainly," said the laird, and away rushed John for a spade.
After digging for half an hour, he came back, nigh speechless to the
laird, who had regarded him musingly. "I canna find him, sir," said
John.--"'Deed," said the laird, very coolly, "I wad ha' wondered if ye
had, for it's ten years sin' I saw him gang in there."[44]

FOOTNOTES:

[42] Poems, chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, 1787, p. 14, "The Twa
Dogs."

FERRET.

A truly blood-thirsty member of that slim-bodied but active race, the
weasel tribe. He is certainly an inhabitant of a warmer climate than
this, being very sensitive to cold. He is used in killing rats and
_ferreting out_ rabbits, a verb indeed derived from his name. He has
been known to attack sleeping infants.

COLLINS AND THE RAT-CATCHERS _grip_ OF HIS FERRETS.

That delightful painter of cottage life, says his son,[45] often found
cottagers who gloried in being painted, and who sat like professional
models, under an erroneous impression that it was for their personal
beauties and perfections that their likenesses were portrayed. The
remarks of these and other good people, who sat to the painter in
perfect ignorance of the use or object of his labours, were often
exquisitely original. He used to quote the criticism of a celebrated
country rat-catcher, on the study he had made from him, with hearty
triumph and delight. When asked whether he thought his portrait like,
the rat-catcher, who--perhaps in virtue of his calling--was a gruff and
unh