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Olive, from her corner, watched the writhings of his rugged features, but she ventured not to approach. "Tak' heart, tak' heart, John!" said one of the men. "He didna suffer much, I reckon," said another. "My owd mother was nigh froze to death in t' forest, and her said 'twas just like dropping to sleep. An' luck ye, the poor lad's face be as quiet as a child."
He was quick; but the gray dog was quicker: a splendid recover, and a sound like a sob from the watchers on the hill. Down the slope they came for the gap in the wall. A little below the opening, James Moore took his stand to stop and turn them; while a distance behind his sheep loitered Owd Bob, seeming to follow rather than drive, yet watchful of every movement and anticipating it.
And while the girl with the glory of yellow hair is preparing food for you they are hospitable to a fault, these Northerners you will notice on the mantelpiece, standing solitary, a massive silver cup, dented. That is the world-known Shepherds' Trophy, won outright, as the old man will tell you, by Owd Bob, last and best of the Gray Dogs of Kenmuir.
'Who is it? came a voice. 'It's thy owd uncle. Can'st spare a minute? Maud appeared at the door, smiling, and arrayed in a peignoir. 'HE'S gone out, said Dan, implying scorn of the person who had gone out. 'Wilt come down-stairs? 'Where's he gone to? Maud demanded. She didn't even pretend she was ill. 'Th' Club, said Dan.
The last of the famous Jocelyns was no more! It seemed incredible. And Briar Farm? What would become of Briar Farm? "There ain't none o' th' owd folk left now" said one man, lighting his pipe slowly "It's all over an' done wi'. Mister Clifford, he's good enow but he ain't a Jocelyn, though a Jocelyn were his mother. 'Tis the male side as tells.
At last the end came in the wet dreariness of the little churchyard, and slowly the mourners departed, until at length were left only the parson, the Master, and Owd Bob. The parson was speaking in rough, short accents, digging nervously at the wet ground. The other, tall and gaunt, his face drawn and half-averted, stood listening.
"Coom, then, and i'll show yo'," he said, and led the way out of the yard. And there below them on the slope to the stream, sitting like Justice at the Courts of Law, was Owd Bob. Straightway Sam'l whose humor was something of the calibre of old Ross's, the sexton, burst into horse-merriment. "Why's he sittin' so still, think 'ee? Ho! Ho! See un lickin' his chops ha! ha!" and he roared afresh.
He looked the picture of disease. After Owd Bob's second victory he had become morose and untalkative. At home he often sat silent for hours together, drinking and glaring at the place where the Cup had been.
Eh! mon, but it were gey hard to get the owd man to sup the herb tea and to let me rub him. He reckoned I wanted to puzzum him same as if he were a ratton, and when I'd putten the saim and honey on his chest he said I'd lapped him up i' fly-papers. But I set no count on his nattering so long as I could keep him alive. "Chrissamas came at last, and New Year set in wi' frost and snow.
"Yoi," was the answer; "but we dunna think he'll come." "Why not?" "He's owd, yo seen, and asthmatic, and it's up-hill." My husband taking a boy for his guide, drove as fast as he could to the surgeon's house, which was about three-quarters of a mile off, and met the aunt of the wounded lad leaving it. "Is he coming?" inquired my husband. "Well, he didna' say he wouldna' come."
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