A Farmer who had just stepped into the field to close a gap in one of
his fences found on his return the cradle, where he had left his only
child asleep, turned upside down, the clothes all torn and bloody, and
his Dog lying near it besmeared also with blood. Convinced at once
that the creature had destroyed his child, he instantly dashed out its
brains with the hatchet in his hand; when, turning up the cradle, he
found the child unhurt and an enormous serpent lying dead on the floor,
killed by the faithful Dog, whose courage and fidelity in preserving
the life of his son deserved another kind of reward.
These affecting circumstances afforded him a striking lesson upon how
dangerous it is hastily to give way to the blind impulse of a sudden
passion.