Page:History of Duncan Campbell, and his dog, Oscar (2).pdf/13



13 encountering the most determined resistance. My father's meadows abounded with hives; they were almost in every swath—-in every hillock. When the swarm was large, they would beat us off, day after day. In all these desperate engagements, Oscar came to our assistance, and, provided that none of the enemy made a lodgement in his lower defiles, he was always the last combatant of our party on the field. I do not remember of ever be- ing so much diverted by any scene I ever witnessed, or laughing so immoderately as I have done, at see- ing Oscar involved in a moving cloud of wild bees, wheeling, snapping on all sides, and shaking his ears incessantly, I The sagacity which this animal possessed is al- most incredible, while his undaunted spirit and generosity it would do honour to every servant of our own species to copy. Twice did he save his master's life: at one time when attacked by a furious bull, and at another time when he fell from behind my father, off a horse into a flooded river. Oscar had just swimmed across but instantly plunged in a second time to his master's rescue. He first got hold of his bonnet, but that coming off, he quitted it, and again catching him by the coat, brought him to the side, where my father reached him. He waked Duncan at a certain hour every morning, and would frequently turn the cows of his own will, when he observed them wrong. If Duncan dropped his knife, or any other small article, he would fetch it along in his mouth; and if sent back for a lost thing would infallibly find it. When sixteen years of age, after being unwell for several days, he died one night below his master's bed. On the evening before, when Duncan came in from the plough, he