feet, he set off again, and returned with the boot-jack and slippers, depositing them also, and expressing, in his motions and countenance, the satisfaction he enjoyed at having rendered a service. He ever after performed the office of valet-de-chambre, not only to his master, but, if a visitor happened to arrive late in the evening, he always brought him the boot-jack and slippers. Crop, as well as a caressing, was a kissing animal, and would salute any person who desired him; and his natural instinct approximated so very nearly to reason, and his affection for the human race was so great, that the opinion given by a certain literary lady of a dog of the same species seems equally applicable to Crop he could be no other than some benignant being transformed into a dog by one of those enchanters celebrated in the Arabian Nights.'

Mr. Hogg, the Ettrick shepherd's dogs, were not less sagacious. I once sent you,' he says, in a letter to the editor of 'Blackwood's Magazine,' an account of a notable dog of my own, named Sirrah, which amused a number of your readers a great deal, and put their faith in my veracity somewhat to the test; but in this district, where the singular qualities of the animal were known, so far from any of the anecdotes being disputed, every shepherd values himself to this day on the possession of facts far outstripping any of those recorded by you formerly. With a few of these I shall conclude this paper. But, in the first place, I must give you some account of my own renowned Hector, which I promised long ago. He was the son and immediate successor of the faithful old Sirrah; and though not near so valuable a dog as his father, he was a far more interesting one. He had three times more humour and whim about him; and though exceedingly docile, his bravest acts were mostly tinctured with a grain of stupidity, which showed his reasoning faculty to be laughably obtuse.

'I shall mention a striking instance of it. I was once at the farm of Shorthope, on Ettrick head, receiving some lambs that I had bought, and was going

to take to market, with some more, the next day. Owing to some accidental delay, I did not get final delivery of the lambs till it was growing late; and being obliged to be at my own house that night, I was not a little dismayed lest should scatter and lose my lambs if darkness overtook me. Darkness did overtake me by the time I got half way, and no ordinary darkness for an August evening. The lambs having been weaned that day, and of the wild black-faced breed, became exceedingly unruly, and for a good while I lost hopes of mastering them. Hector managed the point, and we got them safe home; but both he and his master were alike sore forefoughten. It had become so dark that we were obliged to fold them with candles; and, after closing them safely up, I went home with my father and the rest to supper. When Hector's supper was set down, behold he was awanting! and as I knew we had him at the fold, which was within call of the house, I went out and called and whistled on him for a good while, but he did not make his appearance. I was distressed about this; for, having to take away the lambs next morning, I knew I could not drive them a mile without my dog if it had been to save the whole drove.

'The next morning, as soon as it was day, I arose and inquired if Hector had come home? No; he had not been seen. I knew not what to do; but my father proposed that he would take out the lambs and herd them, and let them get some meat to fit them for the road, and that I should ride with all speed to Shorthope to see if my dog had gone back there. Accord

ingly we went together to the fold to turn out the lambs, and there was poor Hector sitting trembling in the very middle of the fold-door, on the inside of the flake that closed it, with his eyes still steadfastly fixed on the lambs. He had been so hardly set with them after it grew dark; that he durst not for his life leave them, although hungry, fatigued, and cold, for the night had turned out a deluge of rain. He had never so much as lain down; for only the small spot

that he sat on was dry, and there had he kept watch the whole night. Almost any other colley would have discerned that the lambs were safe enough in the fold, but honest Hector had not been able to see through this. He even refused to take my word for it; for he would not quit his watch though he heard me calling both at night and morning.

'It will appear strange to you to hear a dog's reasoning faculty mentioned as I have done; but I declare I have hardly ever seen a shepherd's dog do any thing without perceiving his reasons for it. I have often amused myself in calculating what his motives were for such and such things, and I generally found them very cogent ones. But Hector had a droll stupidity about him, and took up forms and rules of his own, for which I could never perceive any motive that was not even farther out of the way than the action itself. He had one uniform practice, and a very bad one it was; during the time of family-worship, and just three or four seconds before the conclusion of the prayer, he started to his feet and ran barking round the apartment like a crazed beast. My father was so much amused with this, that he would never suffer me to correct him for it, and I scarcely ever saw the old man rise from the prayer without his endeavouring to suppress a smile at the extravagance of Hector None of us ever could find out how he knew that the prayer was near done, for my father was not formal in his prayers; but certes he did know-and of that we had nightly evidence. There never was any thing for which I was so puzzled to discover a motive as this; but from accident I did discover it, and, however ludicrous it may appear, I am certain I was correct. was much in character with many of Hector's feats, and rather, I think, the most outré of any principle he ever acted on. As I said, his great daily occupation was pointing the cat. Now, when he saw us kneel all down in a circle, with our faces couched on our paws, in the same posture with himself, it struck his absurd head that we were all engaged in pointing

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the cat. He lay on tenters all the while, but the acuteness of his ear enabling him, through time, to ascertain the very moment when we would all spring to our feet, he thought to himself, I shall be first after her, for you all."

We have not yet done with author's dogs. I took with me,' says Mr. Dibdin, in his Tour through England, one of those spotted dogs called Danish, but the breed is Dalmatian. It was impossible for any thing to be more sportive, yet more inoffensive, than this dog. Throughout the mountainous parts of Cumberland and Scotland, his delight was to chase the sheep, which he would follow with great alertness even to the summits of the most rugged steeps; and when he had frightened them, and made them scamper to his satisfaction, (for he never attempted to injure them,) he constantly came back wagging his tail, and appearing very happy at those caresses which we, perhaps absurdly, bestowed upon him.

About seven miles on this side of Kinross, in the way from Stirling, he had been amusing himself playing these pranks, the sheep flying from him in all directions, when a black lamb turned upon him, and looked him full in the face; he seemed astonished for an instant, but before he could rally his resolution, the lamb began to paw and play with him. It is impossible to describe the effect this had upon him; his tail was between his legs, he appeared in the utmost dread, and slunk away confused and distressed; presently his new acquaintance invited him, by all manner of gambols, to be friendly with him. What a moment for Pythagoras or Lavater! Gradually overcoming his fears, he accepted this brotherly challenge, and they raced away together, and rolled over one another like two kittens. Presently appeared another object of distress. The shepherd's boy came to reclaim his lamb; but it paid no attention except to the dog, and they were presently at a considerable distance. slackened our pace for the convenience of the boy, but nothing would do; we could no more call off the dog

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than he could catch the lamb. They continued sporting in this manner for more than a mile and a half. At length, having taken a circuit, they were in our rear; and after we had crossed a small bridge, the boy, with his pole, kept the lamb at bay, and at length caught him; and having tied his plaid round him, it was impossible for him to escape. Out of fear of the boy, and in obedience to us, the dog followed reluctantly; but the situation of the lamb all this time cannot be pictured; he made every possible attempt to pass the boy, and even determined to jump into the river, rather than not follow the dog. This continued till the prospect closed, and we had lost sight of our new ally, whose unexpected offer of amity to the Dalmatian seemed ever after to operate as a friendly admonition, for from that day he was cured of following sheep.'

Dogs do not want discrimination. A gentleman having requested the loan of a pointer from a friend, was informed by him that the dog would behave very well so long as he could kill his birds, but if he frequently missed them, it would run home and leave him. The dog was sent, and the following day was fixed for trial, but, unfortunately, his new master was a remarkably bad shot. Bird after bird rose and was fired at, but still pursued its flight untouched by the leaden showers that fell around it, till at last the pointer became careless, and often missed his game; but, as if seemingly willing to give one chance more to his luckless master, he made a dead stand at a fernbush, with his nose pointed downwards, the fore-foot bent, and his tail straight and steady. In this masterly position he remained firm till the sportsman was close to his tail, with both barrels cocked, then moving steadily forward for a few paces, he at last stood still near a bunch of heather, the tail expressing the anxiety of the mind by moving regularly backwards and forward, when out sprang a fine old black cock. Bang, bang! went both barrels, but, alas! the proud bird of the heath still soared in the air unhurt. The patience of the dog was now quite exhausted, and, instead of