midnight
In vain Hogg and his assistant spent the whole night in searching for their lost charge ; and they were on their way home to inform their master of their loss , when they discovered a lot of lambs at the bottom of a deep ravine , and the indefatigable Sirrah standing in front of them , looking round for some relief , but still true to his charge . Believing that it was one only of the divisions , what was their astonishment when they discovered the whole flock , and not one lamb a-wanting ! How he had got all the divisions collected in the dark it is impossible to say . The charge was left to him from midnight till the rising sun , and if all the shepherds in the forest had been there to assist him they could not have effected it with greater propriety . Hogg relates many other anecdotes of Sirrah . On one occasion he brought back a wild ewe which no one could catch from amid numerous flocks of sheep . He showed great indignation when the ewe , being brought home , was set at liberty among the other sheep of his master .