142 MY EARLY FRIENDS.
tory-my brother started early next morning in search of her,
and found her lying unable to stir, with one of her legs terribly
lacerated. She was carried carefully home, and after being
tended for weeks, during which she showed great patience and
gratitude, she was restored to the full use of her limbs.
 In spite of the danger, the rabbit-haunted links, with
their wild thyme, cowslips, and harebells in the seasons,
presented the utmost fascination in life to Skatta. After the
links, she cared for the weasel and rat-frequented fields and
ditches of the strath, with their bugloses and poppies, brook-
lime and irises; but the links formed par excellence her
happy hunting-ground. I have heard her master say that on
returning home, or taking a stroll before retiring to rest on a
summer night, her mute entreaty was sometimes so irresistible,
that he would turn away from the house and take the path
to the solemn sea and the silent links, to grant her the half-
hour's indulgence she besought.
 At one period she walked with the women of the family
every afternoon, and amused them by her uncontrollable dis-
appointment and chagrin-though she was for the most part a
modest, reasonable dog-when they resorted to the rocks and
the sands as their place of promenade. She would sit down
beside them while they rested, and begin to shiver, though
she was in perfect health, and to whimper under her breath
a reproach for their perversity. Why were they so provoking ?
Why could they not have walked on the springy turf of the links,
or by the pleasant field path ? Then she might have hunted
to her heart's content, and still have been in their company.
 When my brother was at home, Skatta made a marked
 distinction between him and the rest of the family, acknow-