LONG AND SHORT SHEEP. 137
about the practicable profits of each. Scott, who had come into our remote district only to collect fragments of legendary lore, was bored with everlasting discus sion about long and short sheep. At length, putting on a serious, calculating face, he asked Mr. "Walter Bryden, " How long must a sheep actually measure, to come under the denomination of a long sheep ? He, not perceiving the quiz, fell to answer with great sim plicity, * It s the woo (wool) it s the woo* that makes the difference. The lang sheep ha e the short woo , and the short sheep ha e the lang woo ; and these are only jist kind o names we gie em. Scott found it impossible to preserve his gravity, and this incident is skilfully wrought into his story of the Black Dwarf. " "We sometimes observed the flocks to stop grazing, and regard passing travellers with fixed attention. Whether they gazed from idle curiosity, or from that love of knowledge which is common to their Scottish masters, or were a peculiarly contemplative species of sheep, or, whether their rather scanty fare might not keep their mental perceptions in greater activity, we failed perfectly to understand.
��Graze on, graze on, there comes no sound
Of border-warfare here, No slogan-cry of gathering clan,
No battle-axe, or spear, No belted knight in armor bright,
With glance of kindled ire,
�� �
