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And so on, past Mother Ross's shop, past the Sylvester Arms, to the right by Kirby's smithy, over the Wastrel by the Haughs, to await his master at the edge of the Stony Bottom. The little man, when thus crossing Kenmuir, often met Owd Bob, who had the free run of the farm.
For ever the justice of Th' Owd Un' claim to his proud title would be settled. If he won, he won outright a thing unprecedented in the annals of the Cup; if he won, the place of Owd Bob o' Kenmuir as first in his profession was assured for all time. Above all, it was the last event in the six years' struggle 'twixt Red and Gray It was the last time those two great rivals would meet in battle.
"Gaein' to ask him if it's true?" called his father after him. "Gude luck to ye and him." David had now a new interest at Kenmuir. In Maggie he found an endless source of study. On the death of her mother the girl had taken up the reins of government at Kenmuir; and gallantly she played her part, whether in tenderly mothering the baby, wee Anne, or in the sterner matters of household work.
Orders were despatched for executing the earls of Derwentwater and Nithsdale, and the viscount of Kennruir, immediately; the others were respited to the seventh day of March. Nithsdale made his escape in woman's apparel, furnished and conveyed to him by his own mother. On the twenty-fourth day of February, Derwentwater and Kenmuir were beheaded on Tower-hill.
But a poisonous dart shot against his friends at Kenmuir never failed to achieve its object. And the little man evinced an amazing talent for the concoction of deft lies respecting James Moore. "I'm hearin'," said he, one evening, sitting in the kitchen, sucking his twig; "I'm hearin' James Moore is gaein' to git married agin."
Throughout the straggling lands of Kenmuir the Master went with his untiring adjutant, rounding up, cutting out, drafting. It was already noon when the flock started from the yard. On the gate by the stile, as the party came up, sat M'Adam. "I've a word to say to you, James Moore," he announced, as the Master approached. "Say it then, and quick.
And there is a saying in the land: "Faithfu' as the Moores and their tykes." On the top dresser to the right of the fireplace in the kitchen of Kenmuir lies the family Bible. At the end you will find a loose sheet the pedigree of the Gray Dogs; at the beginning, pasted on the inside, an almost similar sheet, long since yellow with age the family register of the Moores of Kenmuir.
And so on, the whole day through, week in, week out; till he sickened with weariness of it all. In his darkest hours David thought sometimes to run away. He was miserably alone on the cold bosom of the world. The very fact that he was the son of his father isolated him in the Daleland. Naturally of a reserved disposition, he had no single friend outside Kenmuir.
In the North, every one who has heard of the Muir Pike and who has not? has heard of the Gray Dogs of Kenmuir, every one who has heard of the Shepherd's Trophy and who has not? knows their fame. In that country of good dogs and jealous masters the pride of place has long been held unchallenged. Whatever line may claim to follow the Gray Dogs always lead the van.
When, at length, the verdict was given, and it was known that, after an interval of half a century, the Shepherds' Trophy was won again by a Gray Dog of Kenmuir, there was such a scene as has been rarely witnessed on the slope behind the Dalesman's Daughter.
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