Flash the Sheep Dog

by Kathleen Fidler

  “There’s a sheep under there!” Uncle John declared.

  Jeff evidently thought so too, for he jumped down into the snow and began digging and scratching with his feet. Don joined him, and Flash, after an enquiring yelp, joined the pair of them in the shallow hole. The three dogs scattered the snow in all directions.

  “Aye, the dogs know right enough! I’m going in again, Andra. If a sheep can stand there, so can I!”

  Uncle John let himself cautiously down into the hollow beside the dogs. Though he sank up to his knees in the drift he did not go any further.

  “Hand me the spade, Andra,” he said.

  He dug away vigorously, flinging the snow as far from him as he could. Suddenly there was a stir in the snow itself as though a small earthquake was going on, and out came the astonished head and shoulders of a black-faced ewe! A few more spadefuls of snow and the animal was liberated and went bounding away on to higher ground!

  “Let Flash go after her and hold her, Tom. We don’t want her disappearing into another drift,” Uncle John directed.

  Tom called, “Away to me, Flash! Fetch the sheep!” and pointed at the ewe floundering in the snow. In a moment Flash had bounded after her and turned her. He crouched down before her, holding her with the menacing power of his eye.

  Jeff went on scratching furiously in the hole, making the snow fly.

  “More than one, eh, Jeff?” Uncle John said. He advanced a cautious couple of steps with the spade and dug about again. Out came another ewe, then a third and a fourth till ten of them were beside Tom. Flash concentrated on keeping them in a compact group, giving a low growl at any sheep that seemed inclined to frisk away.

  “That’s the lot there, I think. I’m striking what seems like rock with the spade. Well, that’s ten saved anyway,” Uncle John said as he climbed out of the hole and dusted the powdered snow from his clothes. “We’ll move down the hill a bit to where the Lynn Cleuch joins the Blythe Gully.”

  With the three dogs moving the retrieved flock they descended the hill for about a quarter of a mile, then, at a place that looked to Tom to be just a continuation of the wide expanse of snow, Uncle John stopped.

  “The Lynn Cleuch should be just about here. We’ll feel about for it with our crooks, Andra.”

  “Is it very deep?” Tom asked.

  “No, lad. It’s just a shallow wee burn where a trickle o’ water runs, three feet deep, no more, but that’s enough to shelter and hide sheep if they get under the lee of its bank.”

  Carefully the shepherd and Uncle John felt about with their crooks, but found no hollow that might be the Cleuch.

  Tom had put Flash on a lead so that he did not interfere with the other two dogs who had the little flock under their control. All at once Flash began to whine and strain at the lead.

  “What’s wrong with you, Flash? Come behind!” Tom ordered him.

  Flash obeyed for a couple of minutes, then the whining and straining began again. Uncle John eyed the dog curiously.

  “What ails the dog? Let him off the lead, Tom.”

  Tom let Flash go free and immediately Flash became very excited and bounded away a dozen yards to the extreme right and began scraping and scratching furiously at the snow. Tom was about to whistle the dog back when Uncle John put a restraining hand on his arm. “Wait, lad! Let’s see what he’s up to. There are two or three of the sheep we used for Flash’s training that are among the missing flock.”

  Flash was fast disappearing into the hole he was digging.

  “We’ll give you a bit o’ help, Flash,” Uncle John said and advanced with his spade. Soon he was almost waist deep digging the snow from about his feet. Flash burrowed and dug too, only pausing now and again to sniff with his nose at the hole they were making and to give an impatient little whine.

  “Aye, we’re getting near something,” Uncle John said and began to scrape the snow away with the spade rather than to dig it, for fear of hurting any animal that might be underneath. All at once the snow drift began to move of its own accord! Out came one ewe after another till fifteen of them had emerged!

  “Weel done, Flash! Weel done, lad!” Uncle John praised the small dog. Tom patted him with pride and added his praises to Uncle John’s. Flash rolled over in the snow with delight in the praise and in his own achievement.

  “I thought the dog was smelling out the sheep he knew so weel,” Uncle John remarked.

  “Could he really tell them from the other sheep by their smell?” Tom asked.

  “Aye, lad. I reckon Jeff can tell every single sheep in my flock by its own scent. This proves Flash is going to be equally good. He knew his particular sheep too. Aye, he’s got the makings of a grand sheep dog. Weel, there are still five sheep unaccounted for, and one of them’s the ram. We’ll hunt round for a while longer with Flash, while Jeff and Don keep the sheep we’ve found.”

  Though they cast about over the snowy hillside and followed the watercourse down the hill as best they could for the drifted snow banks, Meggetson probing continually, they did not find any more sheep. Flash seemed to have lost interest in Lynn Cleuch too. Already the early dusk seemed to be drawing around them.

  “We can do no more today,” Uncle John decided. “After all, it’s no’ bad to have found twenty-five out o’ thirty missing sheep in weather like this. There’ll be many more sheep lost on the Border hills this day. We can count ourselves lucky. I wish we hadna’ lost the ram, though. He was a good animal.”

  Tom remembered that when his uncle had met him at the Waverley Station in Edinburgh, he had just bought the ram.

  They went steadily down, the two older dogs having command of the flock. Flash kept to heel behind Tom. Only once did he stop and whine and give a short sharp bark. Tom thought it was because he wished to be at work with the other dogs behind the flock. “Come on, Flash!” he said, and Flash obeyed with a certain reluctance.

  They reached the farm steading and penned the sheep with the others in the large paddock. Andra shouted “goodnight” and went to his own cottage.

  Aunt Jane had done them proud with Cock-a-Leekie broth and stewed chicken, and Elspeth had made a boiled apple dumpling. Never had a meal tasted so good to Tom! There was a good helping of meat for the dogs too, and after it Flash and Jeff fell asleep at opposite corners of the hearthrug. After a strong cup of tea Tom began to feel drowsy too and his head to nod on his chest.

  “Off to bed with you, lad! You’ll fall off your chair next!” Aunt Jane told him kindly.

  Tom woke up enough to bestow his usual goodnight pat on Flash who looked up at him with eyes full of doglike adoration. He gave Tom a quick loving lick.

  “You know, that dog owns Tom as weel as Tom owning the dog!” Uncle John told Aunt Jane as the door shut behind Tom.

  7. Tom and Flash Both Have Hunches

  It was just as the first pale light began to streak over the dark winter sky that Tom woke up suddenly and sat bolt upright in bed. He had been dreaming that he and Flash were looking for the lost ram.

  “The hollow? The hollow halfway down the hill where the gorse bushes are?” Tom exclaimed. “That was where Flash gave a whine and a bark. I wonder?”

  Quietly he got out of bed and dressed. He crept in stockinged feet on to the landing. Though he made no noise the stairs creaked under his tread. Uncle John, tired out after the previous day’s work, never stirred, nor did Aunt Jane. Only Elspeth heard the creaking stair. She wondered if someone could be ill and rose and flung on her dressing gown and crept down the stair too.

  Tom was just putting the kettle on the glowing fire which Aunt Jane stacked with peats at night. He was reaching for the teapot when Elspeth slipped into the room.

  “Tom! What on earth are you up to?”

  “I’m having a warm drink before I go to hunt for Uncle John’s ram.”

  “Tom! He’d be wild if he thought you were going out alone in the half-dark. You know its dangerous on the hills in drifting snow.”

  Tom hesitated
. “I have an idea where the ram might be.”

  “Well, can’t he wait till after breakfast?”

  “It was Flash gave me the notion. I–I’d like to prove he’s as clever as I think he is.”

  “Och! You and your dog!” Elspeth said, but there was good-natured kindness in her voice. “All the same, it’s no’ safe for you to go among the gullies on the hills alone. Suppose you fell down one? Who would know where to look for you?”

  “I’m going all the same,” Tom said with steely obstinacy.

  “Oh, no, you’re not!” Elspeth said with equal determination.

  “You can’t stop me!” Tom told her with a flash of temper.

  “Can I no’?” Elspeth picked up the poker. “I only need to clatter this among the fire-irons and shout at the top o’ my voice, and that would soon bring your uncle out o’ his bed!”

  Tom resorted to coaxing. “Don’t do that, Elspeth. Uncle John’s had a tough two days of it. He needs his sleep.”

  “All right! So do you! Back to your bed then!”

  Tom stared at the small lass he had always found so gentle and who was all at once so grim and determined.

  “Elspeth, you don’t understand. This is a thing I feel I’ve got to do. Please, please don’t stop me going. I promise I’ll be careful.”

  Elspeth had sudden inspiration. “All right, you can go if you’ll take me with you. Two’ll be safer than one. At least I’ll know where you are if you fall into Blythe’s Gully.”

  “No, no, Elspeth! It’s too dangerous.”

  “Listen, Tom Stokes!” Elspeth and Tom conducted the argument in hissing whispers. “I was running on these hills before you knew anything about them. I’ve lived here all my days. Either you take me with you, or you don’t go!”

  “Very well!” Tom agreed at last reluctantly.

  “Right! Then I’m going to put on my outdoor clothes and you can make the tea while you’re waiting for me. And don’t you try to go without me or I’ll wake your uncle!”

  A few minutes later, after drinking the tea, Tom said, “Come on, Flash!” Flash was quite ready and Jeff gave a whine to indicate he was willing too, but Tom shook his head at him and said, “Not this time, Jeff!” They set off, Elspeth closing the door quietly behind them. They took a spade and Uncle John’s crook from an outhouse and the stick Tom used, and plodded through the snow of the lower meadows, sinking in it almost to their knees. Tom carried the spade and stick and Elspeth the shepherd’s crook. They reached the hillside where the wind had blown the snow into drifts almost like waves, leaving parts of the ground thinly covered. By keeping to these parts they were able to move with greater speed. It was still dark, with a ghostly greyness seeping through the night.

  It seemed an eternity before they reached the clump of pine trees part way up the hill. Both children were wet and cold and the muscles of their legs ached almost unbearably. Flash followed faithfully in their wake.

  “Do you want to go back, Elspeth?” Tom asked, looking at her anxiously.

  Elspeth shook her head with determination. “Indeed, no, Tom Stokes!” Just then Tom plunged well past his waist into a drift!

  “Oh, Tom!” Elspeth cried in a panic.

  “It’s all right, Elspeth. Don’t come too close or you’ll fall in too! Take the spade and dig towards me.” Tom flung the spade to her.

  Elspeth dug feverishly and found that Tom had stumbled down a steep bank. Flash dug too, around Tom, scattering the snow with his feet. Tom scraped the snow away from about him with his hands. Luckily the snow had not hardened into ice but it took several minutes of anxious digging to make a path towards Tom and to loosen the snow about his legs.

  “Give me the end of the crook now. I think I can work myself free if you pull, Elspeth.”

  Elspeth passed the crook to him and pulled with might and main. Tom struggled forward and then came out with such suddenness that he fell on his face and Elspeth sat down abruptly in the snow. The fright over, they both laughed helplessly, partly with relief.

  “All the same, Elspeth, it’s a good thing you did come.” Tom said soberly when they had done laughing. “I might have been an awfully long time getting out of the drift on my own.” All at once he pointed to the hole. “Look, Elspeth, there are small stones where you have been digging. That must be the bed of the Lynn Burn. Now I know exactly where we are! It was a good thing I fell into it because it’s given me my bearings now. Come on, Flash!”

  Tom started off at an angle from the burn and away up the hill. After about a quarter of a mile of hard plodding Flash became excited, yelping a little and sniffing the air. He ran a few steps then came back to Tom, ran ahead again, then returned and jumped round Tom.

  “This is near where he seemed a bit excited yesterday,” Tom told Elspeth.

  “It’s as though he’s wanting to lead you somewhere Tom.”

  They were approaching a kind of snowy hummock when Flash darted away and started scraping frantically at the snow.

  “I know what it is! There’s a clump of gorse bushes there buried beneath the snow.” Tom was getting excited himself. He rushed forward with the spade and started digging where Flash was scraping. Flash gave a bark as if to approve. Every time Tom paused in his digging to get breath, Flash rushed in again to scrape and scratch at the hole. Flash’s scraping gave direction to Tom’s digging.

  “He’s certainly on to something!” Tom declared.

  “Give me the spade while you get a breather,” Elspeth said.

  They had dug quite a cave into the banked drift when Flash barked loudly. A pair of curling horns appeared in the hole!

  “It’s the ram!” Tom exclaimed and began to dig carefully with the spade in the animal’s direction. His head emerged, and in the grey light he looked at them with an astonished baleful eye, like a sleeper newly awakened. Tom freed the snow round his legs and almost at once the ram leaped out, nearly knocking Tom over. He began to gallop away. Tom did not lose his head. “After him Flash!” he cried. “Fetch him in!”

  Flash dashed round the ram, running backwards and forwards in front of him till he brought him to a halt. Then he crouched in the snow, fixing the ram with his eye.

  “Hold him, Flash!” Tom ordered. He resumed the digging till he came to a gorse bush. Behind it, in a little hollow among the bushes which were covered by the drift, four ewes were cowering! Uttering wild baa-ing sounds they emerged to the light of day, only to be cornered by Flash and bunched alongside the ram!

  Tom was almost delirious with delight. “The lot of them! The lot of them!” he shouted to Elspeth. “Won’t Uncle John be glad? Come on! Let’s get them down the hill and give him the surprise of his life.”

  With Flash manoeuvring the sheep in a straight line down the hill, they came to their own tracks in the snow. They breasted a slight rise and there, coming up the other side of the hill towards them as fast as he could, was Uncle John with Jeff.

  “What’s the meaning of this?” he cried, his face very grim.

  “I’ve got them, Uncle John! The ram and the four missing ewes!” Tom cried with pride. “They were in the hollow under the gorse bushes!”

  Uncle John’s face changed a little but he still shook his head at Tom. “I’m no’ saying I’m not glad to see the animals and that it’s a wonder you found them, but it was a right foolish thing you did, Tom! Your aunt was nigh off her head when I couldna’ find either o’ you among the farm buildings. Off into the house with you both and take Flash! I’ll see these animals penned.”

  Tom’s face fell at his uncle’s reproving voice. He had felt something of a hero and now he was reduced to a foolish boy. For a moment the angry tears smarted in his eyes.

  Aunt Jane came to the door and folded Elspeth in her arms.

  “My lassie! My lassie! I wondered what had happened to you! Tom, you know how dangerous the hills are in deep snow. Why did you take her off like that?”

  “Tom didna’ take me off,” Elspeth said before Tom could o
pen his mouth to reply. “I told him he’d have to take me with him or I’d wake the whole household.”

  “You’re a stubborn bit lassie!” Aunt Jane scolded but her eye softened as she turned to Tom. “But why did you go, Tom?”

  Tom replied rather sullenly, “I went because I thought Flash knew where the ram was, and he was right. I knew Uncle John was worried because we hadn’t found him.”

  John Meggetson came into the kitchen just then and he heard what Tom said. “If you knew that, why did you no’ tell me last night, Tom?”

  “Because it only came to me in the night and you were sleeping,” Tom told him. “And – and – I thought I’d give you a pleasant surprise at breakfast time if I could find the ram – but it seems – it seems – you were only vexed about it—” Tom gulped, then rushed blindly from the room and up the stairs to his bedroom and slammed the door.

  “Weel, here’s a carry-on!” Uncle John exclaimed, bewildered.

  “Guid sakes! Why do you have to be so thrawn wi’ the laddie? He was only trying to help you,” Aunt Jane told him.

  “Help me? Me thrawn wi’ Tom? I was right upset at what might have happened to the lad. You were little better yourself. Maybe I spoke more sharply than I meant to do.”

  “Och, weel, I’ll just go on making the breakfast! Maybe Tom will come down when he’s got his wet clothes off. Away you, Elspeth, and get into some dry things yourself.”

  When she was ready she tapped on Tom’s door. “Are you coming down for breakfast?”

  “No!”

  Elspeth put her head round the door. Tom was standing staring through the window, his wet clothes unchanged.

  “Och, Tom, don’t be daft! Get your clothes changed, and come down.”

  “No!” Tom repeated fiercely.

  “Why not? You’ll catch your death of cold.”

  “Nothing I do or Flash does will ever please Uncle John. At least he might have had a word of praise for the dog!”

  “Och! Forget it! Come downstairs.”

  “No!” Tom replied stubbornly. “Not till I feel like it!”