and stud. And Scot, he looks at
me, and across at the sheep, and then at me again. I know'd, right
enough, what he wanted. He wanted to go over and fetch that sheep back.
But I 'ouldn't let un, for a bit. And he kept a-looking and a-looking,
same as any one might speak. So I just moved my head, like; there was no
call to do no more. And off he set in the water, and swam river, ketched
the sheep by the throat--oh, no, he didn't hurt un, no fear!--dragged un
to the bank, and brought un over, right enough: he did, though."

"Well, 'twas like this," he continued, after a laugh. "A gen'leman was
a-rowing by in a boat at the time. And he comes across to our side, when
he sees what Scot 'a' done, and he says, 'Shepherd,' he says, 'I'll have
that dog off you, if you've a mind.' And with that he puts three golden
sovereigns on the bank at my feet, where we was busy a-sheepwashing. So I
looks at the sovereigns, and then at he, and says to un, with a laugh--I
says, '_No Sir_.' Lord, how he did pray me to let un have that dog!

"Then it come about this way. That evening we was a-coming down through
the village, and passed 'The Crown'--that was, Scot and me--and there
stood the same gen'leman at the door. So he comes across the road, seeing
me, and he says, 'Well, shepherd,' he says, 'will you part with the dog
now, for, if so be as you will, I'll make it five instead of three?' he
says. And that's truth. And I just looked he between the eyes, like, and
says, 'Part with my dog, Sir?' I says. 'Why, Sir, if I wus to part with
he, I'll tell ye what he'd do--he'd pine and die--he'd just pine away and
die.' And with that I passed on, and left un. Dogs--well, sheep, if you
do please to understand, is sheep; but dogs is dogs, and God Almighty do
know as they be wonderful."

"It's not all dogs, though, that are as shepherds' dogs, Nutt--or capable
of being."

Nutt shook his head. The two men and their dogs were on the hillside,
with two hundred and fifty tegs moving before them. The sheep were
walking with a wide front, but in single files, following those parallel
tracks that had marked this steep hillside for centuries, to puzzle
strangers.

"You can't make a shepherd's dog out of every dog, can you?"

"Perhaps not, in your meaning. But I do know I could train a'most any
dog, if as I'd be so minded."

Scot was on ahead, where he should be. Murphy was close to heel.

"Do you mean to say you could train this one to fold sheep?"