The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-10-10
Tricks Of tho Batting Ran.

Tricks Of tho Buttiug Ram.
A large, 3-year- old Cotswold ram,
IN the flock of Farr>er Hezekiah Doc
little of Benton township, near Scran
ton, Pa, owes q good deal of his vic
ious pugnacity to the training Which
he has received from the farmers 16-
year-old son, Henry. The ram did
not show disposition to butt any
body until he was nearly two years
old, when young Henry took it into
his head to tease him and teach him
to be cross. He began by placing his
two fists against the rams forehead
and pushing with all his might, now
and then backing away short dis
lance and making provoking motions
at the ram, and then rushing up and
hitting him on the head with the heel
of his boot. The ram hadn't been
trained in this way for more than
fortnight before he got in the notion
of fighting back, and young Henry
was tickled over his success as q
trainer. After the ram had got to be
pretty cross the farmers son made
him still more so by jumping behind
the end of a wagon or sleigh just as
the ram was about to butt him, and
then the big sheep would give vent
to his anger and disappointment
with a sort of whine and grunt COM
bined.
Along in the winter Grandfather
DOOlittle. who lives in the adjoining
township, came over to his son. farm
to stay for week. On his visit to
the barn yard the ram sailed up be-
hind him, and sent him sprawling on
his hands and knees into the deep
snow, and young Henry, who was
peepiEg through a crack in the shed,
chuckled till the tears rolled down
his cheeks. 1t hurt the old gentleman
a little, but the attitude he was forced
to assume just after the rams head
came in contact with him was so COM
ical that Henry would have laughed
if his grandfather's injuries had been
twice as severe. After that the old
gentleman carried four-tined fork
with him and whenever he strolled
around the barn-yard, and ever time
the ram started to rush at him, he
held the fork pointed at his assailant.
The ram never ventured to run his
head against the sharp tines, and af-
ter awhile he ceased to look upon the
old nun as a proper subject for his
attacks, and left him entirely alone.
The other day Henry trained ram
ran against a snag, and is now tenn
porarily cripple. Abel Chase,
bark peeler, was passing through the
pasture on a short cut to the bark
woods. The flock were huddled in
hollow near the center of the field,
and Chase was striding straight to-
ward down the hillside with his ak
on his shoulder. trudging along with
in a few yards of the sheep, when the
ram stealthily approached him from
behind, gave him tremendous
thump in the back, and sent him
headlong down the steep hill. Chase's
knees were skinned when he got up,
and he was as mad as a hornet. The
ram made for him again, and Chase
struck at.his head with the ax-helve.
He aimed to low, though, for the
helve, instead oflanding on the rams
head, struck him across the right
foreleg and broke it. The ram then
limped back to the flock on three legs.
After the snow had gone off in the
spring, a neighboring farm boy,
whom Henry had an old grudge
against, came to Farmer Doolittle's
to borrow an augur. The cattle and
sheep were in small lot near the
barn, and there was mud puddle in
the lot. Henry got the boy to go
over and look at his pet heifer that
was chewing her cud close to the pud-
die, and while the neighbor lad was
patting the heifer on the back and
admiring her, the ram dashed up be-
hind him and drove him headfore-
most into the mud and water. The
lad wallowed out sputtering and
blowing, and covered with mud, and
Henry wiped off his clothing with
straw and declared that he was 60
ing to hopple the unruly ram before
nightfall.
Early in June Scranton fisherman,
with creel full of trout, was tramp
ing across Farmer Doolittle's sheep
pasture late in the afternoon, and
the first thing he knew he was hit in
the back and driven against a stump,
his basket and tackle flying this way
and that. He was very much aston
ished, and when he looked around to
see what in the mischief had given
him such an uncalled for blow; the
ram was backing off to butt him
again. The fisherman whaled the
ram with his bundle OF rods, and the
fractions beast trotted off.
Saved by his Sharp. Witted Wife.
Aiddletown IN. Y. corr. New York Sun.
A.