Page:History of Duncan Campbell, and his dog, Oscar (2).pdf/8



8 peasant answered in the affirmative, and added, that a blackgaurd boy had stolen him. The farmer said that he met a boy with a dog about a mile forward. During this dialogue, the farmer's dog came up to Duncan's den, smelled upon him then upon Oscar, ---cocked his tail, walked round them growling, and then behaved in a very improper and uncival manner to Duncan, who took all patiently, uncertain whither he was yet discovered. But so intent was the fel- low upon the farmer's intelligence, that he took no notice of the discovery made by the dog, but ran oft without looking over his shoulder. Duncan felt this a deliverance so great, that all his other distresses vanished; and as soon as the man was out of his sight, he arose from his covert and ran over the moor, and ere it was long, came to a shepherd's house, where he got some whey and bread for his breakfast, which he thought the best meat he had ever tasted, yet shared it with Oscar. Though I had his history from his own mouth, yet there is a space here which it is impossible to relate with any degree of distinctness or interest. He was a vagabond boy, without any fixed habita- tion, and wandered about Heriot Moor, from one farm house to another, for the space of a year; staying from one to twenty nights in each house, according as he found the people kind to him. He seldom resented any indignity offered to himself, but whoever insulted Oscar, or offered any obser- vations on the impropriety of their friendship, lost Duncan's company next morning. He staid several months at a place called Dewer, which he said was haunted by the ghost of a piper;---the piper had been murdered there many years before, in a man- her somewhat mysterious, or at least unacountable