The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1880-07-15

Other TWO elephants; Tor little Demet-
rius had caught the spirit of mischief;
he was footing" too, and wanted to
go after Ptolemy.
The horses were fresh. We went at
a gallop, and soon came close up behind
our elephant, who thus far was merely
shuffiing along in a sulky, dogged way
of his own. But hearing us calling to
him, he started to run.
We put the horses to the full jump,
and tried, by short squirt, to dash past
him; but now that it had come to race,
he left us behind, and fairly ran out Of
hearing.
On we went for mile or more in the
dark, having q vague sense that the ele-
phant was somewhere ahead.
Presently we heard dog barking
savagely. A little in advance was .
house; and in the dim light, we could
indistinctly see the elephant rushing
around in the dooryard, maneuvering to
catch the bulldog, which had probably
rushed out at him.
doors slamming. The dog, barking like
fury, was darting at the elephants
legs; and just as we came galloping up,
Ptolemy caught him.
had glimpse of the dog whirling
over high in the air. He struck. with
an awful yell, on the roof of the house.
and came tumbling off. Tol made
dash for him as he fell, and at almost
the same instant, the outside door opened
partly.
There was a bright blaze, and bang!
went gun; and with that Ptolemy ran
of, trumpeting like locomotive.
We did not stop to settle scores with
the man and gun, but kept after the
elephant. Clumsy as an elephants
motions seem, few horses can keep
pace with one when the animal is rum
ming. Ptolemy left us again; for our
horses were so out of breath that we
allowed them to walk up hill.
Just at the foot of the hill. a man up
in an apple-tree by the roadside shout
ed, /" Who be YEP" trt III
On our replying, he got down and
the doctor for sick neighbor with his
horse and wagon, and that, about half
a mile beyond, he had met "a big crit
ter" that "fell aboard" of him, aud
killed his "hoss"- and smashed his
wagon. He himself barely escaped over
a stone wall.
The "critter" went past, he said, and
then he had started in the opposite di-
rection; but hearing us coming, he
thought Z" more of 'em were loose" and
concluded that his best course was to
climb a tree. ..-s-...
Naturally, the man wanted to know
whether the "critter" belonged to us.
We told him to talk with a man he
would meet farther on, who was coming
with two similar "critters," and then
we rode ahead as fast as we could.
We soon passed the dead horse and
broken wagon beside the road, but hur-
ried on for three or four miles before
we caught sight of Froiemy again. -
Daylight was Just beginning to break
in the east. We passed several houses,
and came to where there was q meet
ing-house and school-house on opposite
sides of the way, near where two roads
crossed each other. Between the meet
ing-house and the roads there was an
. open plat, or common, in the center of
which stood pump and public wa
tering- trough.
Here Ptolemy had found a cow and
her calf. The former was tied by a
long rope to 3 crowbar stuck in the
ground. The COW he had tusked, and
he was trying TO catch the calf as the
little creature ran round and round its
; mother.
just at this moment, an old cosset
ram, which had probably made one of
the group, gallantly came to the rescue
of the calf. and butted the elephants s
legs. Tol tried to seize him with his
trunk, but failed. and the resolute ram
succeeded in giving the elephant an
other blow. = i..-
This time the ram was less fortunate.
Ptolemy seized him by his great curled
horns. and swinging the poor beast
high in the air, began thrashing the
watering trough with him.
With two or three strokes, he de-
molished that, and of course broke ev-
cry bone in the rams body; where
upon, he flung the carcass more than a
, hundred feet, and rushed for the calf
again; but catching sight of us, he
: turned and ran down one of the roads
past the school-house.
had got nearly by him, when he
: turned, and wishing by all means to
head him, lashed my horse to his ut
most speed. For a hundred yards or
more, we went neck and neck, horse
and elephant. It was down hill; the
horse had rather the advantages; and
l yelled at Ptolemy so savagely that he
: was little doubtful what to do.
At length shot by, but kept on at
l full speed, for the horse was in great
fear of the elephant; and, indeed, felt
l far from sure myself that he would not
throw us over the fence if he got hold
of us. .. -.
. From the foot of the hill, the road
led across low ground. full of alders on
each side, to a plank bridge that cross
! ed deep black stream, thirty or forty
l feet wide. A grade, or wharfing, with
railing on both sides, led up to the
, bridge.
galloped across it. But when
Ptolemy came to the planking, he
stopped, fearful, probably, that it would
not bear his weight. He began feeling
. of it with his trunk.
3 A thought struck me. 1 jumped of
1 planks at my end of the bridge. They
: were not spiked down. and [ soon had
ten or twelve of them up. Tol stood
{ and looked at the gap, but did not dare
h to set foot on the bridge.
Lutte had ridden up, and dismount-
t ing, he resolutely barred the road be-
t hind. We talked to the elephant kind
t ly but tauthoritatively. He was evident
a ly pretty well tired out with his run.
s For as much as an hour we kept oul
positions; and we could see that he was
s beginning to grow "sorry." An ele.
phant has more conscience than many
men. After "mad fit" they almost
s always show unmistakable signs OF sor-
t row for it.
. Just after sunrise we saw Hockey
Q and the other two elephants in the road
d up at the meeting-house. On his keep
er coming down to the bridge, Ptolemy
e stretched out his trunk deprecatingly
s towards him.
Under the circumstances, we were
lu lo1 10 hox l.,
e 1t cost nearly three hundred dollar:
: to settle for the DAMAGES the elephant