Albert Payson Terhune

Name: Lad, A Dog — Chapter IV. His Little Son
Author: Albert Payson Terhune

Lad, A Dog — Chapter IV. His Little Son (1919)

Summary

“Lad, A Dog — Chapter IV. His Little Son”, published in 1919, is a work by Albert Payson Terhune. It explores elements such as puppy, Wolf and Lad.

Quotes from Lad, A Dog — Chapter IV. His Little Son (Albert Payson Terhune)

Albert Payson Terhune, Lad, A Dog — Chapter IV. His Little Son (1919)

“ Nature, like the birds, had flown south, leaving the northern world as dead and as empty and as cheerless as a deserted bird’s-nest.
The puppy reveled in the snow. He would roll in it and bite it, barking all the while in an ecstasy of excitement. His gold-and-white coat was thicker and shaggier now, to ward off the stinging cold. And the snow and the roaring winds were his playfellows rather than his foes.
Most of all, the hard-frozen lake fascinated him. Earlier, when Lad had taught him to swim, Wolf had at first shrunk back from the chilly black water. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Albert Payson Terhune, Lad, A Dog — Chapter IV. His Little Son (1919)

“ He was mad, clear through, at the prank his beloved lake had played on him. He struck out for shore. On the landward side of the opening his forefeet clawed helplessly at the unbroken ledge of ice. He had not the strength or the wit to crawl upon it and make his way to land. The bitter chill of the water was already paralyzing him. The strong current was tugging at his hindquarters. Anger gave way to panic. The puppy wasted much of his remaining strength by lifting up his voice in ear-splitting howls. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Albert Payson Terhune, Lad, A Dog — Chapter IV. His Little Son (1919)

“ On the third and last morning of the thaw Wolf galloped down to the lake as usual. Lad jogged along at his side. As they reached the margin, Lad sniffed and drew back. His weird sixth sense somehow told him—as it tells an elephant—that there was danger ahead.
Wolf, however, was at the stage of extreme youth when neither dogs nor humans are bothered by premonitions. Ahead of him stretched the huge sheet of ice whereon he loved to gambol. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Albert Payson Terhune, Lad, A Dog — Chapter IV. His Little Son (1919)

“ At sound of her whimper Lad started forward, head low, lips writhing back from his clenched teeth, his shaggy throat vibrant with growls. At a sharp word of command from the Master, he checked his onset and stood uncertain. He looked at his departing mate, his dark eyes abrim with sorrow, then glanced at the Master in an agony of appeal.
“It’s all right, Laddie,” the Master tried to console him, stroking the dog’s magnificent head as he spoke. “It’s all right. It’s the only chance of saving her.” ”

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Source: Wikisource

Albert Payson Terhune, Lad, A Dog — Chapter IV. His Little Son (1919)

“ Lad would wake in pain, would rise in dignified unhappiness to his feet and start to walk off—the puppy still hanging to his ear. As Wolf was a collie and not a bulldog, he would lose his grip as his fat little body left the ground. Then, at a clumsy gallop, he would pursue Lad, throwing himself against his father’s forelegs and nipping the slender ankles. All this was torture to Lad, and dire mortification too—especially if humans chanced to witness the scene. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Albert Payson Terhune, Lad, A Dog — Chapter IV. His Little Son (1919)

“ Then, noting that the fur on the top of the puppy’s sleepy head was rumpled, Lad bent over and began softly to lick back the tousled hair into shape with his curving tongue—his raspberry-pink tongue with the single queer blue-black blot midway on its surface. The puppy mumbled drowsily in his sleep and nestled more snugly to his new protector.
And thus Lad assumed formal guardianship of his obstreperous little son. It was a guardianship more staunch by far than Lady’s had been of late. For animal mothers early wear out their zealously self-sacrificing love for their young. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Albert Payson Terhune, Lad, A Dog — Chapter IV. His Little Son (1919)

“ Being cursed with a soul too big and gentle to let him harm anything so helpless as Wolf, he did not snap or growl, as did Lady, when the puppy teased. He merely walked away in hurt dignity.
Wolf had a positive genius for tormenting Lad. The huge collie, for instance, would be snoozing away a hot hour on the veranda or under the wistaria vines. Down upon him, from nowhere in particular, would pounce Wolf.
The puppy would seize his sleeping father by the ear, and drive his sharp little milk-teeth fiercely into the flesh. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Albert Payson Terhune, Lad, A Dog — Chapter IV. His Little Son (1919)

“ Lad, nowadays, used to leave half his dinner uneaten, and he took to moping in a way that is not good for dog or man. For the moping had in it no ill-temper—nothing but heartache at his mate’s desertion, and a weary distaste for the puppy’s annoying antics. It was bad enough for Wolf to have supplanted him in Lady’s affection, without also making his life a burden and humiliating him in the eyes of his gods. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Albert Payson Terhune, Lad, A Dog — Chapter IV. His Little Son (1919)

“ There are few things so mournful as the eyes of even the happiest collie pup; this morning, loneliness had intensified the melancholy expression in Wolf’s eyes. But at sight of Lad, the puppy gamboled forward with a falsetto bark of joy. The world was not quite empty, after all. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Albert Payson Terhune, Lad, A Dog — Chapter IV. His Little Son (1919)

“ Lad took his new duties very seriously indeed. He not only accepted the annoyance of Wolf’s undivided teasing, but he assumed charge of the puppy’s education as well—this to the amusement of everyone on The Place. But everyone’s amusement was kept from Lad. The sensitive dog would rather have been whipped than laughed at. So both the Mistress and Master watched the educational process with outwardly straight faces.
A puppy needs an unbelievable amount of educating. It is a task to wear threadbare the teacher’s patience and to do all kinds of things to the temper. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Albert Payson Terhune, Lad, A Dog — Chapter IV. His Little Son (1919)

“ Small wonder that many humans lose patience and temper during the process and idiotically resort to the whip, to the boot-toe and to bellowing—in which case the puppy is never decently educated, but emerges from the process with a cowed and broken spirit or with an incurable streak of meanness that renders him worthless. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Albert Payson Terhune, Lad, A Dog — Chapter IV. His Little Son (1919)

“ Dogs seldom get distemper after they’re a year old, but when they do it’s dangerous. Better let me take her over to my hospital and isolate her there. Distemper runs through a kennel faster than cholera through a plague-district. I may be able to cure her in a month or two—or I may not. Anyhow, there’s no use in risking your other dogs’ lives by leaving her here.”
So it was that Lad saw his dear mate borne away from him in the tonneau of a strange man’s car.
Lady hated to go. She whimpered and hung back as the vet’ lifted her aboard. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Albert Payson Terhune, Lad, A Dog — Chapter IV. His Little Son (1919)

“ And these spirits sometimes led him to smash even such sections of the law as he fully understood. But he was a thoroughbred, and the son of clever parents. So he learned, on the whole, with gratifying speed—far more quickly than he could have been taught by the wisest human. ”

Albert Payson Terhune

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Quotes from Lad, A Dog — Chapter IV. His Little Son (Albert Payson Terhune)

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