Part 29 (1/2)

The blunted eyetooth made but a superficial furrohich served only to , she returned to the attack Again, with a ghost of his old elusive speed; Laddie avoided her rush, by the narrowest of ht her by the ear

Now, more than once, in other frays, Lad had subdued and scared trespassing pigs by this hold But, in those days, his teeth had been keen and his jaw strong enough to crack a beef bone Moreover, the pigs on which he had used it to such effect were not drunk with the lust of killing

The sow squealed, afresh, with pain; and once ain, Lad was flung aside by that shake; this timent of torn ear between his teeth

As she drove slaveringly at his 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 ic 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 Sa forth in jaunty confidence to meet the Philistines he so often and so easily had conquered:

”He wist not that the Lord was departed fro of old age is granted, must come the black time e shall essay a task which once we could accomplish with ease;--only to find its achieve powers And so, this day, was it with Sunnybank Lad

Of yore, such a grip as he now secured would have ha helpless But the dull teeth h skin And a spas's hold

Lad barely had ti heavily His wounds were hurting and weakening his whichto water His courage alone blazed high and undimht He must have known the probable outcoreat heart did not flinch at the prospect Feebly, yet dauntlessly, he caer And he alone could help

No longer able to avoid the rushes, hedown under others and rising with ever greater slowness and difficulty The sow's ravening teeth found a goal, any coat which the Mistress brushed every day with such loving care The pronged hoofs had twice ht after one of his heavy tuht seeht on To the attack, after each upset or wound, he craith deathless courage

The Mistress, at Lad's first charge, had stepped back But, at once she had caught up again the stick and belabored the soith all her frailthe side of a concrete wall Heedless of the flailing, the sow ignored her; and continued her maddened assault on Lad The maids, attracted by the noise, crowded the front doorway; clinging together and jabbering To theun, from the study wall, and for a handful of shells

She kept her head; though she saw she was powerless to save the dog she loved And her soul was sick within her at his peril which her puny efforts could not avert

Running across the lawn, toward the house, she un and two shells Without stopping to glance at the cartridges,--nor to realize that they were filled with Nuht shot, for quails,--she thrust two of the, fired pointblank at the sow

Lad was down again; and the sow,--no longer in a squealing rush, but with a new cold deadliness,--was gauging the distance to his exposed throat The first shot peppered her shoulder; the tiny pellets scarce scratching the tough hide

The Mistress had, halted, to fire Now, she ran forward: With the er again

The pig's huge jaws road opened with deliberate width One forefoot was pinning the helplessly battling dog to earth, while she made ready to tear out his throat

The second shot whizzed about her head and face Two or three of the pellets entered the open runt nor howl, yet which savored of both, the sow lurched back fro pain in her tender un and brought it crashi+ng down on the pig's skull The carved any stock broke in two The jar of iers

The sow see away; and chaony in her un

The Mistress took advantage of the ly rising Lad; and, catching hi collie refused to obey He knew pig nature better than did she And he knew the soas not yet finished with the battle He strove to break free froer back to his adversary

The Mistress, by , toward the safety of the house Panting, bleeding, reeling, pitiably weak, yet he resisted the tender urging; and kept twisting his bloody head back for a glimpse of his foe Nor was the precaution useless

For, before the Mistress and her wounded dog were half-way across the reh of her deflected wits and fury to lower her head and gallop down after them

At her first step, Lad, by a stupendous effort, wrenched free fro hi mass of pork But, as he did so, he found breath for a tru cry

For, dulled as were his ears, they were still keener than any hu paws a home at a leisurely trot, from their raun; and had broken into a run They read the ht read a printed word And it lent wings to their feet