g care to appear to everybody by whom he was
known, while his dog went by another with the stolen sheep; and then,
on the two felons meeting again, they had nothing more to do than turn
the sheep into an associate's enclosure, in whose house the dog was
well fed and entertained, and would have soon taken all the fat sheep
on the Lothian edges to that house. This was likewise a female, a
jet-black one, with a deep coat of soft hair, but smooth-headed, and
very strong and handsome in her make. On the disappearance of her
master she lay about the hills and places where he had frequented, but
she never attempted to steal a drove by herself, nor the smallest
thing for her own hand. She was kept some time by a relation of her
master's, but never acting heartily in his service, soon came
privately to an untimely end. Of this there is little doubt, although
some spread the report that one evening, after uttering two or three
loud howls, she instantly vanished! From such dogs as these, good Lord
deliver us!"

The following is, perhaps, a still more extraordinary anecdote of the
fidelity shown by a sheep-dog to its charge. It was communicated by
Robert Murray, shepherd to Mr. Samuel Richmond, Path of Coudie, near
Dunning, in Perthshire.

Murray had purchased for his master four score of sheep at the Falkirk
Tryst, but having occasion to stop another day, and confident in the
faithfulness and sagacity of his colley, which was a female, he
committed the drove to her care, with orders to drive them home,--a
distance of about seventeen miles. The poor animal, when a few miles
on the road, dropped two whelps, but, faithful to her charge, she
drove the sheep on a mile or two further--then, allowing them to stop,
returned for her pups, which she carried for about two miles in
advance of the sheep. Leaving her pups, the colley again returned for
the sheep, and drove them onwards a few miles. This she continued to
do, alternately carrying her own young ones and taking charge of the
flock, till she reached home. The manner of her acting on this
occasion was afterwards gathered by the shepherd from various
individuals, who had observed these extraordinary proceedings of the
dumb animal on the road. However, when the colley reached her home,
and delivered her charge, it was found that the two pups were dead. In
this extremity, the instinct of the poor brute was, if possible, still
more remarkable. She went to a rabbit-brae in the vicinity,