As she drove slaveringly at him once more, Lad swerved and darted
in; diving for her forelegs. With the collie, as with his
ancestor, the wolf, this dive for the leg of an enemy is a
favorite and tremendously effective trick in battle. Lad found
his hold, just above the right pastern. And he exerted every atom
of his power to break the bone or to sever the tendon.
In all the Bible's myriad tragic lines there is perhaps none
other so infinitely sad,--less for its actual significance than
for what it implies to every man or woman or animal, soon or
late,--than that which describes the shorn Samson going forth in
jaunty confidence to meet the Philistines he so often and so
easily had conquered:
"He wist not that the Lord was departed from him!"
To all of us, to whom the doubtful blessing of old age is
granted, must come the black time when we shall essay a task
which once we could accomplish with ease;--only to find its
achievement has passed forever beyond our waning powers. And so,
this day, was it with Sunnybank Lad.
Of yore, such a grip as he now secured would have ham strung or
otherwise maimed its victim and left her wallowing helpless.
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