The following is from Mark Twain --'Roughing It 'which I am reading. It is about a Buffalo that chases a man up a tree.
TWAIN
teeth and holding onto the pommel with both hands. First we left the ilop;, behind; then we passed a jackass rabbit; then we overtook a coyote, and wri r gaining on an antelope when the rotten girth let go and threw me about thu Iy yards off to the left, and as the saddle went down over the horse's rump In-gave it a lift with his heels that sent it more than four hundred yards up in the air, I wish I may die in a minute if he didn't. I fell at the foot of the only solitary tree there was in nine counties adjacent (as any creature could siv with the naked eye), and the next second I had hold of the bark with foui sets of nails and my teeth, and the next second after that I was astraddle ol the main limb and blaspheming my luck in a way that made my breath smcl I of brimstone. I had the bull now, if he did not think of one thing. But that one thing I dreaded. I dreaded it very seriously. There was a possibility that the bull might not think of it, but there were greater chances that he would. I made up my mind what I would do in case he did. It was a little over forty feet to the ground from where I sat. I cautiously unwound the lariat from the pommel of my saddle—
"Your saddle? Did you take your saddle up in the tree with you?"
"Take it up in the tree with me? Why, how you talk. Of course I didn't. No man could do that. It fell in the tree when it came down."
"Oh—exactly."
"Certainly. I unwound the lariat, and fastened one end of it to the limb. It was the best green rawhide, and capable of sustaining tons. I made a slip noose in the other end, and then hung it down to see the length. It reached down twenty-two feet—halfway to the ground. I then loaded every barrel of the Allen with a double charge. I felt satisfied. I said to myself, if he never thinks of that one thing that I dread, all right—but if he does, all right any¬how—I am fixed for him. But don't you know that the very thing a man dreads is the thing that always happens? Indeed it is so. I watched the bull, now, with anxiety—anxiety which no one can conceive of who has not been in such a situation and felt that at any moment death might come. Presently a thought came into the bull's eye. I knew it! said I—if my nerve fails now, I am lost. Sure enough, it was just as I had dreaded, he started in to climb the tree—
"What, the bull?"
"Of course—who else?"
"But a bull can't climb a tree."
"He can't, can't he? Since you know so much about it, did you ever see a bull try?"
"No! I never dreamt of such a llnny."
"Well, then, what is the use of \">iir talking that way, then? Because vi HI never saw a thing done, is that .my reason why it can't be done?"
"Well, all right — go on. What did v< HI do?"
SUSPENDED OPERATIONS.
"The bull started up, and got •i long well for about ten feet, then ilipped and slid back. I breathed easier. He tried it again — got up a lil tic higher — slipped again. But he fiime at it once more, and this time lu- was careful. He got gradually higher and higher, and my spirits went down more and more. Up he came — an inch at a time — with his eyes hot, and his tongue hanging out. Higher and higher — hitched his foot over the stump of a limb, and looked up, as much as to say, 'You are my meat, friend.' Up again — higher and higher, and getting more excited the closer he got. He was within ten feet of me! I took a long breath — and then said I, 'It is now or never.' I had the coil of the lariat all ready; I paid it out slowly, till it
hung right over his head; all of a sudden I let go of the slack, and the slip noose fell fairly round his neck! Quicker than lightning I out with the Allen and let him have it in the face. It was an awful roar, and must have scared the bull out of his senses. When the smoke cleared away, there he was, dan¬gling in the air, twenty foot from the ground, and going out of one convul¬sion into another faster than you could count! I didn't stop to count, anyhow — I shinned down the tree and shot for home."
"Bemis, is all that true, just as you have stated it?"
"I wish I may rot in my tracks and die the death of a dog if it isn't
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« Last Edit: February 18, 2012, 09:23:08 am by gambol1 »
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