Naturally,
He Was The Leader And Master Of The Whole Pack, And When He Got Up
With An Awful Growl, Baring His Big Teeth, And Hurled Himself On The
Others To Chastise Them For Quarrelling Or Any Other Infringement Of
Dog Law, They Took It Lying Down.
He was a black dog, now in his old
age sprinkled with white hairs all over his body, the face and legs
having gone quite grey.
Caesar in a rage, or on guard at night, or
when driving cattle in from the plains, was a terrible being; with us
children he was mild-tempered and patient, allowing us to ride on his
back, just like old Pechicho the sheep-dog, described in the first
chapter. Now, in his decline, he grew irritable and surly, and ceased
to be our playmate. The last two or three months of his life were very
sad, and when it troubled us to see him so gaunt, with his big ribs
protruding from his sides, to watch his twitchings when he dozed,
groaning and wheezing the while, and marked, too, how painfully he
struggled to get up on his feet, we wanted to know why it was so - why
we could not give him something to make him well? For answer they
would open his great mouth to show us his teeth - the big blunt canines
and old molars worn down to stumps. Old age was what ailed him - he was
thirteen years old, and that did verily seem to me a great age, for I
was not half that, yet it seemed to me that I had been a very, very
long time in the world.
No one dreamed of such a thing as putting an end to him - no hint of
such a thing was ever spoken. It was not the custom in that country to
shoot an old dog because he was past work. I remember his last day,
and how often we came to look at him and tried to comfort him with
warm rugs and the offer of food and drink where he was lying in a
sheltered place, no longer able to stand up. And that night he died:
we knew it as soon as we were up in the morning. Then, after
breakfast, during which we had been very solemn and quiet, our
schoolmaster said: "We must bury him today - at twelve o'clock, when I
am free, will be the best time; the boys can come with me, and old
John can bring his spade." This announcement greatly excited us, for
we had never seen a dog buried, and had never even heard of such a
thing having ever been done.
About noon that day old Caesar, dead and stiff, was taken by one of
the workmen to a green open spot among the old peach trees, where his
grave had already been dug. We followed our schoolmaster and watched
while the body was lowered and the red earth shovelled in. The grave
was deep, and Mr. Trigg assisted in filling it, puffing very much over
the task and stopping at intervals to mop his face with his coloured
cotton handkerchief.
Then, when all was done, while we were still standing silently around,
it came into Mr. Trigg's mind to improve the occasion. Assuming his
schoolroom expression he looked round at us and said solemnly: "That's
the end. Every dog has his day and so has every man; and the end is
the same for both. We die like old Caesar, and are put into the ground
and have the earth shovelled over us."
Now these simple, common words affected me more than any other words I
have heard in my life. They pierced me to the heart. I had heard
something terrible - too terrible to think of, incredible - and yet - and
yet if it was not so, why had he said it? Was it because he hated us,
just because we were children and he had to teach us our lessons, and
wanted to torture us? Alas! no, I could not believe that! Was this,
then, the horrible fate that awaited us all? I had heard of death - I
knew there was such a thing; I knew that all animals had to die, also
that some men died. For how could any one, even a child in its sixth
year, overlook such a fact, especially in the country of my birth - a
land of battle, murder, and sudden death? I had not forgotten the
young man tied to the post in the barn who had killed some one, and
would perhaps, I had been told, be killed himself as a punishment. I
knew, in fact, that there was good and evil in the world, good and bad
men, and the bad men - murderers, thieves, and liars - would all have to
die, just like animals; but that there was any life after death I did
not know. All the others, myself and my own people included, were good
and would never taste death. How it came about that I had got no
further in my system or philosophy of life I cannot say; I can only
suppose that my mother had not yet begun to give me instruction in
such matters on account of my tender years, or else that she had done
so and that I had understood it in my own way. Yet, as I discovered
later, she was a religious woman, and from infancy I had been taught
to kneel and say a little prayer each evening: "Now I lay me down to
sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep"; but who the Lord was or what
my soul was I had no idea. It was just a pretty little way of saying
in rhyme that I was going to bed. My world was a purely material one,
and a most wonderful world it was, but how I came to be in it I didn't
know; I only knew (or imagined) that I would be in it always, seeing
new and strange things every day, and never, never get tired of it.
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