A Buffalo Fight

Appearances indicated that this shaggy old t'ellow had beeu uiaking a very good fight of it lor several days. I dare say that iu the maintenauoe of his social status he had gone back into the herd and started at his descendants, and pawed and groaned, as much as fit'ty times. The long hair upon his huge neck was tangled and pulled until tutts of it hung loose and unkempt. The outer tibres of his huge black horns feil in tilarnents and splinters. His wicked little eyes had a reddish glare, and his beard was limp and froth-wet beneath his chin. Nor was tbis all. Sundry long, oblique, hairless lines appeared on his flank, and he put his left fore foot down teuderly, very likely remembering, at the same time, a square jounce he had got yesterday in the shoulder, from some strougnecked youngster that had taken it upon hinisell to whip his father. He stood a little upon the outskirts now, his head towards me, pretending to eat grass. it was as nice herbage as a buil, whose teeth were probably none of the best, could wish - the first tender growth of the early spring. But still he did not seem to enjoy it. At intervals of a minute or so, he wouïd look round quickly over his shoulder and groan, and stand thinking, and then pretend to eat again. ïo this distressing pantomime the ten thousand shaggy grazers paid not the least attention. ï'hey were busy. I could hear them cropping the grass, as I lay there, with a continuous, rasping souud. It was too evident, that of all these cows whorn he had so often combod iuto curliness with his long tongue, of sunny morniugs, and led, and herded, and fought tor ; of all the little, stupid, hump-backed, stump-tailed calves, his own offspring, there was not one who did uot wish him disposed of according to búrlalo destiny, or who cared how soon his last fight with the cayotes was over, and his monumental skull left standing upon its jagged base on the bleak hill top, with scarce so much as a thigh-bone or a, tuft of brown hair, by way of obituary. But this old ono was still a buffalo, and a buil, and he kept surreptitiously getting nearer and nearer to the ragged border of the herd. Presen tly a calí' carne toward him slowly, and in an investigatory sort of way, its little black nose wet and wrinkled, its little brown flanks distended with fullness, and the white milk froth depending in long threads from its mouth. Gradually and slowly he went up to his father, and the two -had just touched noses amicably, when the mother also took it into her head to be friendly, and carne too. Then carne another cow, and another, and presently quite a little wing uf the heid had gathered there, and the battered old warrior looked around him complacently. This kind of thing had doubtless happened so often, that I wonder he did not seem to think of the result, but he did not. He might have known that he had arrived at that age when the young bloods of the herd would not look complacently upon his hoary gallantries. He wassimply laying the plans tbr another fight, and the trouble began in the very midst of his content. A fellow as big as the old one must have seen this social gathering from soine distance, and threw out certain intimations of his approach, by little puffs of dust wbich ñaw high in the air above ,he crowd, and by ominous snortings and ugubrious groans. The old one stopped chewing with a green mouthful between ns lips, and listened. The cows looked round with the compiacent expressiou which seeined to say that the fight was none of theirs, and crowded off upon eithor side, and very soon the antagonists stood facing each other. The old boy straightened out his wisp of a tail to a line with his back, gathered his four black hoofs together, arched his spine, and placed his nose close to the sod, shaking his huge head as though he wished to satisfy himself finally of its freedora from any entangleraent which would hinder him from just tossing that ambitious youngster over his back and breaking him in two. The other came slowly, twisting his tail from side to side in semicircles which were very delibérate and grand for so small an organ. He took pains to mako it distinctly appear that every hair he wore was angry. His eyes rolled in constantly increasing redness. His black, sharp horns encrusted with earth gathered while he had been tearing the sod in the ecstasy of valor. His nostrils were distended, aud he halted in his slow advanoe to toss the broken sod high over his shoulder with his pawing. He was, in a natural way, a tactician. He made flank raovements, and turned his shaggy sides, first one and then the other, tovvards his huge antagonist. But this by play of battle only hindered the final onset - they by no means intended to take it out by vaporing. The Challenger advancod within some four feet, getting angrier and angrier as he came. Snddenly there was a crash which had in it something Homeric. One rattling onset of that kind leaves one in uo doubt as to why the short, etrong horna of the buffaloes have a splintered appearance at the agices. Then there was a long, steady push, in which every tender of the huge bodies was strained to the utmost. Then there was a strategie easing off, then a den, gladiatorial thrust, which psessed the huge heads to the ground in an even bülance of strength. Neither beast dared relax a inuscle or retreat an inch, for fear of that fatal charge upon the flank, or that dangerous twist of thu nyck, which ineans defeat. And now the cows" returned and looked complacently on, and the very calves bogan to shake their hi;ads in the first vague instinct of combativeuess inspired by the battle of the bulls. And the young lordlings of the herd distended their nostrils and elevated their tails, but forbore any interference. It was a duel a Voutrance. A momentary relaxation of the tremendous strain only 'resulted in the shaggy heads coming together again with a dull thuuip, and a rene wal of the dogged pushing whiuh inight have moved a freight-train. It was a matter of lungs and endurance, and the white froth began to drop in long, tenacious strings froin their lips, and the red eyes to glare dimly through what seemed clots of blood. 1 could hear the labored breathing whero I lay, and seo the tendons stand out across the thighs and along tlio thick necks. But this dead set of strength not last always. Every moment of time was telling disastrously upon the shorter wind and decaying strength of the oíd crusader, who still fought for the loves of his youth. His foot slipped, and the iutelligence of this slight disaster seemed to reach his antagonist quicker than a flash of light. No gladiator ever urged his advantage more suddenly. There was a huge lunge, a sound of horas slipping on each other, a springing forward, and the horn of the younger buil had mads a raking upward stroke through his antagonista flank. The fight now became brisk. Again and again the oíd one turned and tried to make the stand of head to head, and as often his more active antagonist caught him behind the shoulder. With the red agony of' dcíeat iu his eye, and the blood trickling froni the long wounds in his flank, he still refused to be conquered. With failing strength and liinbs which refused any longer to serve him, he finally stood at bay, with open mouth and hanging tongue, unable to fight and disdaimng to retreat His antagonist pushed him, and he yielded doggedly. He made no attempt to shield his flank, and pitifully endured all that carne. The original plan of non-interferenee was abandoned, and the young lords gathered round him and snorted and shook their heads, and gave him an occasional dig in the ribs, by way of expressing their con tempt for him. The cows came and snuffed at him, and engaged in occasional feminine butts, and walked a way. Their marnier implied that they always regarded him as a disagreeable old muff, aDd they were glad he finally understood their heartfelt sentiments in regard to him. Through all this the old fellow stood unicsisting, whipped, but still obstinate. Gradually they all left him to himself, and the herd wandered turther away. - He did not even look around ; he was probably torced at last to accept his sentence of banishment, and to live as long as he could alone, and fight his last iight with the cayotes, and die. But that calf came out to see him again. I say that calf, because it seemed to me the saue oue that had brought on this last unpleasantuess, though for that matter they are all alike. The calt came and arched its back and pawed, and elevated its nine-inch tiiil iu front of him, and gave him to understand, by the plain est kind of language, that it held itself iu reidiness to give him a most terrible drubbing, if ho had not already had enough. It was comical to see him imitate the actions of his seniors, while the poor old buil did not so uiuch as look at him. But his calfship was inclined to push matters, and finally made a pass which placed his foolish head with a considerable thump against the soft part of the oid man 's nose. Then he stood a moment, with the air of having hurt. himself a little, and toddled off to his moth er. The old one did not move an inch, and seemed hardly to notice this babyisb per secution. But I suspect it broke his heart. He wandered, limping and slowly, down towards the sedge, and I lay there, forgetful of the long army musket beside me, regretting that there had been no one else to bet with during the battle, or to stand up like a man and confirni this story afterwards. The sun rose high over the prairie, the wind veerod, there was a sudden panic, and the herd vanished beyond the hills, leaving me to plod back to