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In the sheep-dog's case, a healthy appetite waited always upon plentiful meals. She had but one whelp to care for, and of that one she hardly ever lost sight, even when sleeping. On the evening of his tenth day in the world, Finn was still perfectly blind. His eyes as yet showed no signs of opening. This rather surprised the Master, when he looked in before shutting up for the night.
"Let him have his chance; he's a good pup, and will do you great credit presently." His hand continued to rest on the sheep-dog's neck or head, till the three pups were comfortably full, and the foster herself was comfortably eased of her bounteous milk-supply. Then, gently, he removed his hand, and the foster proceeded to lick her own two pups with exemplary diligence.
She took it from him, hurried out, and set it under the thirsty animal's nose. The collie lapped it eagerly until the water was gone, then looked up and, by waggings and lickings, asked for more. Mr. Traill brought out a second basin, and he remarked upon a sheep-dog's capacity for water. "It's no' a basin will satisfy him, used as he is to having a tam on the moor to drink from.
The new arrival had whirled his huge body clear and gripped the sheep-dog's neck in jaws longer and more powerful than those of any other dog in Sussex. Grip weighed close upon ninety pounds; but he was shaken and battered now from side to side, very much as a rat is shaken by a terrier.
Tramp, in spite of being strange to the downs and the downland sheep-dog's work, would probably have been kept by Caleb to the end but for his ineradicable passion for hunting rabbits.
"A dog's doin', and no mistakin' thot," said Jim at length, after a minute inspection. "Ay," declared the Master with slow emphasis, "and a sheep-dog's too, and an old un's, or I'm no shepherd." The postman looked up. "Why thot?" he asked, puzzled. "Becos," the Master answered, "'im as did this killed for blood and for blood only.
The sheep-dog gazed up into Pete's face with bright, unblinking eyes that questioned, "Why was Pete leaving camp early in the morning and without the burros?" "I'm quittin' for good," said Pete. The dog's waving tail grew still. "That's right honest!" and Pete rose. The sheep-dog's quivering joy ceased at the word. His alertness vanished.
She had rounded up her white lamb and yapped upon the heels of those who dared approach with too great familiarity; had bristled and shown her teeth upon every possible occasion, until those who would fain have led the girl into new and verdant pastures had fled at the sheep-dog's approach, leaving them both to enjoy the novelty of everything, each after her own kind.
"I cannot tell; the nose of a bloodhound has a finer sense than a sheep-dog's." "And how did you come to know of the compact between the brothers?" "They got unwary under wine drunk at that fir table. The doctor was the medical attendant of Colonel Graeme, and this gave him means of working upon his conscience; and I know they have been at this work for a time."
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