And There Are
Also Sweet And Beautiful Songs; But It Is Very Quiet World
Where Creatures Move About Subtly, On Wings, On Polished
Scales, On Softly Padded Feet - Rabbits, Foxes, Stoats,
Weasels, And Voles And Birds And Lizards And Adders And
Slow-Worms, Also Beetles And Dragon-Flies.
Many are at enmity
with each other, but on account of their quietude there is no
disturbance, no outcry and rushing into hiding.
And having
acquired this habit from them I am able to see and be with
them. The sitting bird, the frolicking rabbit, the basking
adder - they are as little disturbed at my presence as the
butterfly that drops down close to my feet to sun his wings on
a leaf or frond and makes me hold my breath at the sight of
his divine colour, as if he had just fluttered down from some
brighter realm in the sky. Think of a dog in this world,
intoxicated with the odours of so many wild creatures, dashing
and splashing through bogs and bushes! It is ten times worse
than a bull in a china-shop. The bull can but smash a lot of
objects made of baked clay; the dog introduces a mad panic in
a world of living intelligent beings, a fairy realm of
exquisite beauty. They scuttle away and vanish into hiding as
if a deadly wind had blown over the earth and swept them out
of existence. Only the birds remain - they can fly and do not
fear for their own lives, but are in a state of intense
anxiety about their eggs and young among the bushes which he
is dashing through or exploring.
I had good reason, then, to congratulate myself on Jack's
surly behaviour on our first meeting. Then, a few days later,
a curious thing happened. Jack was discovered one morning in
his kennel, and when spoken to came or rather dragged himself
out, a most pitiable object. He was horribly bruised and sore
all over; his bones appeared to be all broken; he was limp and
could hardly get on his feet, and in that miserable condition
he continued for some three days.
At first we thought he had been in a big fight - he was
inclined that way, his master said - but we could discover no
tooth marks or lacerations, nothing but bruises. Perhaps, we
said, he had fallen into the hands of some cruel person in one
of the distant moorland farms, who had tied him up, then
thrashed him with a big stick, and finally turned him loose to
die on the moor or crawl home if he could. His master looked
so black at this that we said no more about it. But Jack was
a wonderfully tough dog, all gristle I think, and after three
days of lying there like a dead dog he quickly recovered,
though I'm quite sure that if his injuries had been
distributed among any half-dozen pampered or pet dogs it would
have killed them all.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 152 of 157
Words from 79179 to 79682
of 82198
