Albert Payson Terhune

“ Lad recognized the thing as a dog—yet no such dog as ever he had seen. An unwholesome-looking dog. Even as the little boy was an unwholesome-looking child.
“Well!” sonorously proclaimed the Wall Street Farmer as he scrambled out of the runabout and bore down upon his hosts, “here I am! The sheep got here all safe? Good! I knew they would. McGillicuddy’s a genius; nothing he can’t do with sheep. You remember Mortimer?” lifting the lanky youngster from the seat. “He teased so to come along, his mother said I’d better bring him. I knew you’d be glad. Shake hands with them, Morty, darling.” ”

“ The Mistress came forward.
“Lad would sooner die than hurt a child,” she declared, trying not to think of the wrecked heirloom chair. “He loves children. Here, let me see Morty’s hand. Why, those are claw-marks! Cat scratches!”
“Ve nassy cat scwatched me!” bawled Morty. “Kill her, daddy! I twied to. I twied to frow her in ve fire. But ve mizz’ble dog wouldn’t let me! Kill her, daddy! Kill ve dog too!”
The Master’s mouth flew wide open.
“Won’t you go down to the paddock, dear,” hastily interposed the Mistress, “and see if the sheep are all right? Take Lad along with you.” ”

“ Now, in northern New Jersey a live sheep is well nigh as rare as a pterodactyl. This flock of twenty had cost their owner their weight in merino wool. A dog—especially a collie—that does not know sheep, is prone to consider them his lawful prey, in other words, the sight of a sheep has turned many an otherwise law-abiding dog into a killer.
To avoid so black a smirch on The Place’s hospitality, the Master had loaded all his collies, except Lad, into the car, and had shipped them off, that morning, for a three-day sojourn at the boarding kennels, ten miles away. ”

“ McGillicuddy’s right!” boomed the Wall Street Farmer, catching but part of his shepherd’s mumbled words. “Good idea! He is a fine dog. I see that now. I was prejudiced. I freely admit it. A remarkable dog. What’ll you take for him? Or—better yet, how would you like to swap, even, for Melisande?” ”

“ A collie, too, has a queer strain of wolf in him—not only in body but in brain, and the wolf was the sheep’s official murderer, as far back as the days when a humpbacked Greek slave, named Æsop, used to beguile his sleepless nights with writing fables. ”

“ If he is the best he learns to mind, and to behave himself in every way like a thoroughbred. He learns it without being beaten or sworn at. If he is the worst—then it’s wisest for his owner to hunt up some Easy Mark and sell the cur to him for $1100. You’ll notice I said his ‘owner’—not his ‘master.’ There’s all the difference in the world between those two terms. Any body, with price to buy a dog, can be an ‘owner,’ but all the cash coined won’t make a man a dog’s ‘master’—unless he’s that sort of man. ”

“ A sheep is one of the least intelligent creatures on earth. Should the flock’s leader decide at any time during the night to press his heavy bulk against the gate or against some of the rustier wire strands, there would presently be a gap through which the entire twenty could amble forth. Once outside—
Again McGillicuddy glowered dourly at Lad. The collie returned the look with interest; a well-bred dog being as skilled in reading human faces as is any professional dead beat. Lad saw the dislike in McGillicuddy’s heavy-thatched eyes ”

“ From the Ramapo hill pastures, south of Suffern, two days before the fair, descended a flock of twenty prize sheep—the playthings of a man to whom the title of Wall Street Farmer had a lure of its own—a lure that cost him something like $30,000 a year ”

“ Morty flung himself bodily upon Lad; hauling and mauling the stately collie this way and that.
Had any grown person, save only the Mistress or the Master, attempted such treatment, the curving white eyeteeth would have buried themselves very promptly in the offender.
Indeed, the Master now gazed, with some nervousness, at the performance; but the Mistress was not worried as to her adored pet’s behavior; and the Mistress, as ever, was right. ”