It is not difficult to recognize, even under their funny disguises, the
dogs that are performing this little comedy. Even if their faces were
completely hidden, the Highland bonnet and the shepherd's plaid on the
back of the bench would betray them. They are Scotch shepherd dogs, or
collies. Both are young, and are in the early stages of their education.
They are learning to know their master's voice and to understand his
wishes.
To sit up on its hind-legs, with a cap on its head and a pipe in its
mouth, must certainly be very trying even to a good-tempered dog. The
cap is very heavy and uncomfortable, and the pipe has not the least bit
of bone flavor about it. But the dog that holds the pipe and the dog
that wears the good wife's sun-bonnet know, or at least are learning to
know, that what their master bids them do must be done, if possible.
There is a very serious side to the life of a shepherd's dog in the
Scottish Highlands, to which this merry masquerading forms a pleasant
contrast. Day after day he must accompany the shepherd and his flock,
and keep watch over the straying sheep upon the mountain-side.
When the faithful colly has thoroughly learned his business, he may have
a chance to win other prizes besides his daily food and his master's
friendship; for in Scotland prizes are often given to the dog that
proves himself the best in a "field trial."
A flock of sheep is turned out upon a mountain-side, and in a distant
part of it a "pen" is made with hurdles just large enough to hold the
flock. An opening just wide enough for one sheep to pass in, at a time,
is left. The shepherds in turn send their dogs out, and the dog that can
drive all the sheep into the pen in the shortest time wins the prize.
Each shepherd "works" his own dog, that is, he directs it with his
voice, but is not allowed to help his dog in turning the sheep.
A shepherd who was watching his flock on a dark night saw them suddenly
break away in all directions. Calling up his dog, he gave chase; but the
sheep were wild, and he could not turn them. Soon they were all out of
sight. He wandered over the mountain all night, but no trace of them
could he find, until just at daybreak he came upon them, collected
together--there were seven hundred of them--and there, keeping watch and
ward over them, was his faithful dog. It had spent the night in
gathering them together, and as they were too tired to walk home, the
faithful animal sat down and waited until his master should find them at
daybreak.
The dogs in the picture are the old shepherd's playmates now. They will
soon be his most faithful friends and servants. Perhaps they may be the
means of saving his life, for many and many a life has been saved by the
intelligence and devotion of these humble creatures.
At last the brave and hardy shepherd will grow old, and the day will
come when his sheep will miss him upon the mountain-side. His body is
borne to its last resting-place in the peaceful old church-yard, and the
neighbors all along the valley come to drop a tear upon his grave. But
when all have gone their way sorrowfully, there remains one mourner who
will not quit the mound of earth that covers his dear friend and master.
It is no one; it is nothing; it is but a poor, ignorant, unreasoning,
faithful--dog.