Morning Star

JUVENILE.

From Sander's School Reader

The lost child preserved by the Shepherd's Dog.

Of all quadrupeds, the dog, next to the elephant, is the most intelligent, and friendly to man, and it seems beyond the power of ill usage to alienate his affections. His beauty, swiftness, vivacity, courage, fidelity, docility, and watchfulness, render him most endearing to man. When in his domestic state, his first ambition and great satisfaction is to please; he is more humble through affection than servility; he awaits his orders, and most implicitly obeys them. Friendly, without interest, and grateful for the slightest favors, he sooner forgets injuries than benefits; his only aim is to serve, never to displease.

A shepherd, who inhabited one of those valleys or glens which intersect the Grampian Mountains in Scotland, in one of his excursions to look after his flocks, took with him one of his children, a boy three years old.- This is not an unusual practice among Highlanders, who accustom their children, from early infancy, to endure the rigors of the climate. After traversing his pastures for some time, attended by his dog, the shepherd found himself under the necessity of ascending a summit at some distance, to have a more extensive view of his range. As the ascent was too fatiguing for the child, he left him on a small plain at the bottom, with strict injunctions not to stir till his return; scarcely, however, had he gained the summit, when the horizon was darkened by one of those impenetrable mists, which frequently descend so rapidly amid these mountains, as in the space of a few minutes almost to turn day into night. 'The anxious father instantly hastened back to find his child; but owing. to the unusual darkness, and his own fear, be unfortunately missed his way in the descent. After a fruitless search of many hours, he discovered that he had reached the bottom of the valley, and was near his own cottage. To renew the search that night was equally unavailing and dangerous; he was therefore compelled to go home, although he had lost both his child and his dog, which had attended him faithfully for many years. Next morning, by break of day, the shepherd, accompanied by a band of his neighbors, set out in search of his child; but after a day spent in anxiety and fatigue, he was at last compelled, by the approach of night, to descend from the mountain. On returning to his cottage he found that the dog, which he had lost the day before, had been home, and, on receiving a piece of bread, had instantly gone off again. For several successive days the shepherd renewed the search for his child, and still on returning to his house, disappointed in the evening, be found that the dog had been home, and, on receiving his usual allowance of bread, had instantly disappeared. Struck with this singular circumstance, he remained at home one day, and when the dog, as usual, departed with his piece of bread, he resolved to follow him, and find out the cause of his strange procedure. The dog led the way to a cataract, at some distance from the spot where the shepherd had left the child. The banks of the cataract almost joined at the top, yet separated by an abyss of immense depth, presented that appearance which so often astonishes and appals the travelers that frequent the Grampian Mountains. Down one of these rugged descents, the dog began without hesitation to make his way, and at last disappeared by entering into a cave, the mouth of which was almost level with the torrent. The shepherd with difficulty followed; but on entering the cave, what were his emotions, when he beheld his child eating, with much satisfaction, the bread which the dog had just brought him, while the faithful animal stood by, eyeing his young charge with the utmost complacency! From the situation in which the child was found, it appeared that he had wandered to the brink of the precipice. and then fallen or scrambled down till he reached the cave, The dog, by means of his scent, had traced him to the spot; and afterward prevented him from starving, by giving up to him his own daily allowance. He appears never to have quitted the child by night or day, except when it was necessary to go for food; and then he was seen running at full speed to and from the cottage.