A LARGE DOG was one day walking with
great dignity along a street in Battle Creek when a bit of
fluff about the size of a Pomeranian flew out of a yard,
shrieking to all dogdom that he was going to eat up that big
lump of good-for-nothingness that was invading his domain.
The big fellow walked on, apparently oblivious of the
bouncing hullabaloo that yip-yapped around his feet. The
little fellow grew more frantic as he was ignored, and he
dashed and feinted at the big one from behind and either
side in a frenzy of jumping and squealing.
Still utterly snubbed by Mr. Big, the
Pomeranian sprang toward his high-held head: The large dog
looked calmly down a moment, then said, "Boo-oof," in a deep
bellow. The sound seemed to flatten the little dog against
the ground. Then the speed he developed for vanishing
elsewhere was amazing. The big dog had hardly missed a step
in his majestic march.
At a friend's home I was once asked to
walk her pet Pom on a leash around the block. Forgetting the
preceding dog drama, I paid no attention when a strange
woman and a child approached me, accompanied by a stately
Collie. But the next moment the Pom had snatched the light
cord from my fingers and had it tangled in and out around
the Collie's legs, where the Pom had frantically run in a
spasm of yapping. Amid laughter from the humans, we
extricated the little Pom and his leash, while the big dog
stood perfectly still, scarcely deigning a glance at the
diminutive sputterbudget.
One day a neighbor I counted a friend did
me a perfectly contemptible bit of two-faced meanness.
Discovering it suddenly, I was seized with an inner frantic
convulsion of rage. "If I did what I feel like," I said to
an office mate, "I would do so-and-so," naming what seemed
like a very neat revenge.
He held up thumb and finger about an inch
apart as he replied, "If you did, you would be exactly the
same size that he is."
I thought of the two calm big dogs and
decided I. preferred their magnanimous_ carriage to being
Pom-sized.
Speak to the earth, and it shall teach
thee. Job 12:8.
