Lion took it for a real
animal, and, disliking its fierce and important look exceedingly, he
immediately set up his ears and his shaggy birses, and, fixing a stern
eye on the picture in manifest wrath, he would then sit for a whole
day and point at it without budging or altering his position.

"It is a curious fact in the history of these animals, that the most
useless of the breed have often the greatest degree of sagacity in
trifling and useless matters. An exceedingly good sheep-dog attends to
nothing else but that particular branch of business to which he is
bred. His whole capacity is exerted and exhausted on it, and he is of
little avail in miscellaneous matters; whereas, a very indifferent
cur, bred about the house, and accustomed to assist in every thing,
will often put the more noble breed to disgrace in those paltry
services. If one calls out, for instance, that the cows are in the
corn, or the hens in the garden, the house-colley needs no other hint,
but runs and turns them out. The shepherd's dog knows not what is
astir; and, if he is called out in a hurry for such work, all that he
will do is to break to the hill, and rear himself up on end to see if
no sheep are running away. A bred sheep-dog, if coming hungry from the
hills, and getting into a milk-house, would most likely think of
nothing else than filling his belly with the cream. Not so his
uninitiated brother; he is bred at home to far higher principles of
honour. I have known such lie night and day among from ten to twenty
pails full of milk, and never once break the cream of one of them with
the tip of his tongue, nor would he suffer cat, rat, or any other
creature to touch it. This latter sort, too, are far more acute at
taking up what is said in a family.

"The anecdotes of these animals are all so much alike, that were I but
to relate the thousandth part of those I have heard, they would often
look very much like repetitions. I shall therefore, in this paper,
only mention one or two of the most singular, which I know to be well
authenticated.

"There was a shepherd lad near Langholm, whose name was Scott, who
possessed a bitch famed over all the West Border for her singular
tractability. He could have sent her home with one sheep, two sheep,
or any given number, from any of the neighbouring farms; and, in the
lambing season, it was his uniform practice to send her home with the
kebbed ewes just as he got them. I must let the town reader under