Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/419

 JAMES HOGG 403 for, as for shoes, I had none. In that naked state did I herd for several days, till a shepherd and maid-servant were sent to the hills to look for them, and found them all." The winter quarter he was sent to school again, got into the class that read the Bible, and tried at writing copy lines of text in inch- long letters. This finished his schooUng, of which he had about half a year in all. His real education, apart from mechanical reading and writing, was due to his mother's Border lore and his pastoral life; and these served him well in the future, far better, indeed, than what is called a good commercial or even classical training in a town would probably have done. He went back in spring to herding cows, the lowest of rural occupations, and was en- gaged in it several years under sundry masters, till he attained the honour of keeping sheep. Here is one little bit of childish romance in his own words : '* It will scarcely be believed that at so early an age I should have been an admirer of the other sex. It is nevertheless strictly true. Indeed I have liked the women a great deal better than the men ever since I remember. But that summer, when only eight years of age, I was sent out to a height called Broad-heads with a rosy-cheeked maiden to herd a flock of new-weaned lambs, and I had my mis- chievous cows to herd besides. But, as she had no dog and I had an excellent one, I was ordered to keep close by her. Never was a master's orders better obeyed. Day after day I herded the cows and the lambs both, and Betty had nothing to do but sit and sew. Then we dined together every day at a well near to the Shielsike head, and after