The Junior Classics, Volume 8: Animal and Nature Stories
General
The Junior Classics, Volume 8: Animal and Nature Stories
Children's literature
over, lashing out with her feet in all directions. Pausing a
moment, she would stretch her body to its extreme length, and,
lying upon her side, pound the floor with her head as if it were a
maul. Then like a flash she would leap to her feet, and whirl round
and round until from very giddiness she would stagger and fall. She
would lay hold of the straw with her teeth, and shake it as a dog
shakes a struggling woodchuck; then dashing it from her mouth, she
would seize hold of her own sides, and rend herself. Springing up,
she would rush against the end of the car, falling all in a heap
from the violence of the concussion. For some fifteen minutes
without intermission the frenzy lasted. I was nearly exhausted. My
efforts to avoid her mad rushes, the terrible tension of my nervous
system produced by the spectacle of such exquisite and prolonged
suffering, were weakening me beyond what I should have thought it
possible an hour before for anything to weaken me. In fact, I felt
my strength leaving me. A terror such as I had never yet felt was
taking possession of my mind. I sickened at the sight before me,
and at the thought of agonies yet to come. 'My God I exclaimed,
'must I be killed by my own horse in this miserable car!' Even as I
spoke the end came. The mare raised herself until her shoulders
touched the roof, then dashed her body upon the floor with a
violence which threatened the stout frame beneath her. I leaned,
panting and exhausted, against the side of the car. Gulnare did not
stir. She lay motionless, her breath coming and going in lessening
respirations. I tottered toward her, and as I stood above her, my
ear detected a low gurgling sound. I cannot describe the feeling
that followed. Joy and grief contended within me. I knew the
meaning of that sound. Gulnare, in her frenzied violence, had
broken a blood-vessel, and was bleeding internally. Pain and life
were passing away together. I knelt down by her side. I laid my
head upon her shoulders, and sobbed aloud. Her body moved a little
beneath me. I crawled forward, and lifted her beautiful head into
my lap. O, for one more sign of recognition before she died! I
smoothed the tangled masses of her mane. I wiped, with a fragment
of my coat, torn in the struggle, the blood which oozed from her
nostril. I called her by name. My desire was granted. In a moment
Gulnare opened her eyes. The redness of frenzy had passed out of
them. She saw and recognized me. I spoke again. Her eye lighted a
moment with the old and intelligent look of love. Her ear moved.
Her nostril quivered slightly as she strove to neigh. The effort
was in vain. Her love was greater than her strength. She moved her
head a little, as if she would be nearer me, looked once more with
her clear eyes into my face, breathed a long breath, straightened
her shapely limbs, and died. And there, holding the head of my dead
mare in my lap, while the great warm tears fell one after another
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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