Connecticut western news., 1873-01-24
The Brigadier and the Bull.

The Brigadier and the Bull.
 There was Brigadier Ruggles, who got made Brigadier in the French war, somehow. A sturdy old Tory he was, and went over to Novia Scotia after our war broke out. He wouldn't fight against the colonies, but King George and the old country had the strongest pull on him, and he couldn't live squarely un- der 8 new flag. However, before '76, Brigadier Ruggles kept good house in Berkshire, Massachusetts, furnished pretty well all through from England. Half the chairs and tables had histo- "; but the piece he was preudest of was tall old mirror, beveled at the edges of the glass, and set in a carved ebony frame, which some of his wife's folk-Madam Ruggles they called her had sent over as 8 present from old Berkshire, Madam Ruggles' mirror was the finest thing inside any house in Massachusetts, and stood in the hall right opposite the front door, so that every one who came to the house might see it at once. And Brigadier Ruggles' English bull was long way the first beast in New England, at least so the Brigadier said, and the up-country far mers used to come miles out of their way only to get look at him. At last one of them, after he had seen the Brigadier's bull all round, guessed he knew Vermonter who had got home bred bull, alongside of which the Brig adier's bull was of no acconnt. This made the Brigadier rile up; but as they could not settle it by talk, and the Yer monter was coming down to fair at Boston in the fall, it was agreed he should bring his bull along, and stop a night with the Brigadier. We'll, ac- cordingly, Saturday night before the Boston fair, sure enough the Vermonter came along with his bull. It was too dark to judge much about the beasts that night, so the Vermonter's bull was put in the next pen to the Brigadier's bull, and they went in to supper. All night Brgadier Ruggles tossed about, thinking of the Vermonter's bull; and next morning he was that bad with fit of collie, that, though he was an elder, Madam Ruggles thought it best to let him stop away from meeting. Accord ingly, she and the Vermonter went off in the wagon with the farm-servants, and left the Brigadier by the fire, with book of Cotton Mather's sermons; and 8 chalk draught at his elbow. Somehow, they hadn't been gone more than quarter of an hour, when the Brigadier began to feel better. After neading spell. he seemed to think a little fresh air might set him all right, so he gets on his thick boots, just to stroll out in the garden. Sure enough, the air was just what he wanted, and presently 1t came into his head just to drop over to the pens, and see if it was all right with the bulls. So he opened the garden-gats and stepped across, and looked eagerly into the pens. There was his bull, all in a lather, marching up and down one side of the fence, and the Vermonter's bull on the other, both of them moaning to themselves in low tone, as if they were swearing, and nothing but gate on the latch to hin der them getting at one another. sThe Brgadler took up 8 prong, and 1eant over, and tried to coax his bull, which was tame enough to him, to come and be scratched between the horns,S But the bull toek no notice, and kept march ing up and down. So the Brigadier watched them both, and fell to compar- ing them, and thinking -" We'll, that Vermonter's bull ain't of any account, after all, alongside of my bull-he ain't so straight in the back, nor so square in the barrel, nor so thick in the neek-he don't weigh, now, not, I should say, within hundredweight of my bull. 9"
 Somehow, as he was going on think ing of the bulls, the Brigadier kept on tip-tappng at the hasp of the gate, and not minding what he was at with his prong, till all of sudden he just gave tip too much at the latch, and the gate between the pens swung slowly open, just as the Vermonter's bull came opposite it. Next minute the bulls were together by the horns. The Brigadie1 hallooed right out, though it was Sab. bath, but all the men were away a, meeting.
 Look again, and there was the Yer. monter's bull driving his bull back or his launches. Brigadier Ruggles was brave man. so he throws open the gate he was leaning over, and lays on to the Vermonter's bull behind with the prone just as the brute drives down his owT bull, and breaks his neck in the corner of the pen. Then the Vermonter's bull turns round on the Brigadier, and after one good look at him, puts down hii head with sort of low whistle, ant scrapes with his fore hoof, meaning mis chief. The Brigadier didn't wait, bu made off for the house, slamming tn. pen gate and the garden gate behind him. But he hears two crashes, anG then the whistle of the Vermonter's bull coming after him, as he reaches his oper front door, and bolts through the hal to the kitchen, slammiAg the second door behind him. -a ..
 Perhaps the cuss won't come into the house" thought the Brigadier, as he stood panting behind the kitche1 door; but next minute he heard the Yer montsr's bull stalk into the hall. The1 silence for minute, and then the whis tie and scraping again. Whats he ul to now ?' thought the Brigadier, as h. just peeped through crack. Ther, stood the bull, right opposite his ow1 image in Madam Ruggles' mirror kings arm always hung on the hooks over the kitchen fireplace, loaded witt ball, and the Brigadier caught it down and made two steps across the floor, ant right out into the hall, just in time t, see the Vermonter's bull down his heai and go crash into the mirror. The shocl seemed to stagger him, and before h, could turn round, the Brigadier-tha
 mad that he would have faced all tn