Once a steer had been bitten on the nose and his head had swollen up so he couldn't eat.

Buddy did not want that to happen to HIM.
He made sure that the horned toad was safe, chose a rock as large as he could lift and heave from him, and threw it at the buzzing, gray coil.
He did not wait to see what happened, but picked up another rock, a terrific buzzing sounding stridently from the coil.

He threw another and another with all the force of his healthy little muscles.

For a four-year-old he aimed well; several of the rocks landed on the coil.
The snake wriggled feebly from under the rocks and tried to crawl away and hide, its rattles clicking listlessly.

Buddy had another rock in his hands and in his eyes the blue fire of righteous conquest.