The heroic boy, quite certain of victory, is excited by the coming contest.

His brows are violently contracted, the nostrils tense and quivering, the eyes fixed keenly on the distant Philistine.

His larynx rises visibly, and the sinews of his left thigh tighten, as though the whole spirit of the man were braced for a supreme endeavour.

In his right hand, kept at a just middle point between the hip and knee, he holds the piece of wood on which his sling is hung.

The sling runs round his back, and the centre of it, where the stone bulges, is held with the left hand, poised upon the left shoulder, ready to be loosed.