A COLLIE AT WORE.

Otago Witness, Issue 953, 25 April 1889, Page 31

A COLLIE AT WORE.

" He'll not be pleased, sir, unless he gets something to do. Do 'you see ' the sheep scattered over yon'green slope, just beneath the far-away peak "to the left 1 ? Here' is 'm y binocular, with which you can 1 see 'them better. Tweed shall go and bring them 'over here, and we can sit down and rest untiljthey come." The working of a good 'dog era* a steep hillside is a really interesting and ! beautiful sight, and we are delighted ' With the proposal. What is very remarkable, 1 and no less pleasing than remarkable, is 1 the quiet, confidential way in which our friend 1 Duncan ! speaks to Tweed and how readily the 'dog | understands what is required of him. ' "Ha | understands Gaelic best," Duncan observed I with a smile. " Tweed, ' teich a mach thai!. I Tweed, over 1 yonder; away." That's' all, spoken in a quiet, kindly tone of voice thai has something in it, too, indicative of the speaker's conviction that the command will be obeyed. And obeyed it oertainlv island quickly too ; for before the words are well | spoken Tweed is dashing down the' steep, with a perfect understanding of what is required of him, 'and *a thorough knowledge 1 also of how quickest and best to do it. Across. I the stream and up the 'rugged steep beyond goes Tweed at such a paoe as soon brings him to a long; blue ridge above and behind the slope on which the> sheep are feeding-* Making his presence known by' a bark* though he is too far- away for us "to hear him, he circles in a rapid sweeps round the upper and outer sheep and makea them close in on their companions, whe are* already huddling together* lower Il dbwni There are some five or six score of blackfaced wethers, and having collected them in. a crowd, Tweed's business is to idrive' them down from i terrace ,to terrace . and/ steep r to> steep into the hollow of the glen. Of all kinds of sheep, three-year-old Wethers like these are the most difficult for >a dog' to manage, and it is' a ■ most interesting, and beautiful sight to see how admirably the dog works,, and the varying outlines of the flock, *as adown terrace and ridge' and slope they j descend the heights. Now they are .'huddled! ; together in a crowd that, in turf > phrase,! \" might be covered with > a blanket;. anon ithey spread out like .&, fan ; again,<inuan at-, itempt to break away, there is a* stream tojthe right, which the watohful Tweed na 'sooner checks, driving the runaways back} 'upon their fellows, than there is a similar 1 jstream to the left, only to be checked inithesame way ; and so, with constantly, varying: loutlines of, formation, the -'snow-white clouds jof sheep 'descends to the meadow ji flat* jbelow. When they- near the. river, which h!a» .to be crossed, Duncan, with a wave of hiftf hand, directs the good dog < towards 'the* shallow ford on the . stream immediately below us, and by that! particular ford accord-; ingly the sheep are made to cross to our sidei of the glen. Another wave of Duncan's, hand lets the dog know that lie is to take the 1 sheep up in our direction, and up they come 1 and are made to pass before us in close ■ order, like a body of troops before a com"* mander-in-chief at a review. When they have passed by, a couple o£ quietly spoken Gaelic words tell Tweed that " that will do."> — " Good Words."