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 seen, but the faithful animal had heard his master
lament their absence in words which set him at once on the alert, and
without more ado he had silently gone off in quest of the recreant
flock. In vain Hogg and his assistant spent the whole night in
searching for their lost charge; and they were on their way home to
inform their master of their loss, when they discovered a lot of lambs
at the bottom of a deep ravine, and the indefatigable Sirrah standing in
front of them, looking round for some relief, but still true to his
charge. Believing that it was one only of the divisions, what was their
astonishment when they discovered the whole flock, and not one lamb
a-wanting! How he had got all the divisions collected in the dark it is
impossible to say. The charge was left to him from midnight till the
rising sun, and if all the shepherds in the forest had been there to
assist him they could not have effected it with greater propriety.
Hogg relates many other anecdotes of Sirrah. On one occasion he brought
back a wild ewe which no one could catch from amid numerous flocks of
sheep. He showed great indignation when the ewe, being brought home,
was set at liberty among the other sheep of his master. He had
understood that the animal was to be kept by itself, and that he was to
be the instrument of keeping it so, and he considered himself insulted
by the ewe being allowed to go among other sheep, after he had been
required to make such exertion, and had made it so successfully, to keep
it separate.
A single shepherd and his dog, says Hogg, will accomplish more in
collecting Highland sheep from a farm than twenty shepherds could do
without dogs. Without the shepherd's dog, the whole of the mountainous
land in Scotland would not be worth sixpence. It would require more
hands to gather a flock of sheep from the hills into their folds, and
drive them to market, than the profits of the whole flock would be
capable of maintaining.
Here we have an example of a dull, unattractive-looking dog becoming of
the very utmost canine usefulness. I have known many an apparently dull
boy, by perseveringly endeavouring to learn what he has had to do, and
then steadily pursuing the course marked out for him, rise far above his
quick and so-called clever but careless companions. I do not say, Work
for the purpose of rising, but, Work because it is right. Remember
Sirrah. Learn your duty, and do it, however disagreeable it may seem.