The Yale expositor., 1897-01-22


in order to relieve the strain on my
attention employed myself watching a
beetle which appeared to be attracted
by the freight, and was sitting before
it thoroughly rubbing his antennae
against each other.
Suddenly the beetle gave such a
jump that he nearly jumped headlong
into the fire, and so did we all-give
| jumps, / mean, and no wonder, for
from right under the skerm fence there
came the most frightful roar-a roar
that literally made the Scotch cart
shake and took the breath out of you.
Harry calculated and turned rather
| green, Jim-Jim howled outright, while
| the poor oxen stood and shivered and
lowed piteously.
THE night was almost entirely dark
now, for the moon had quite set and
| the clouds had covered up the stars,
SO that the only light We had was from
| the fire, which was burning up bright
| ly again now; but, as you know, fire.
| light is absolutely useless to shoot by,
| it is so uncertain, and besides 1T pene-
trates but a very little way into the
| darkness, although if one is in the
dark outside one can see it from so
| far away.
Presently the oxen, after standing
still for a moment, suddenly winded
| the lion and did what l feared they
would do-began to Shrek that is to
| try and break loose from the trektow to
v,b oh tod off
madly into the wilderness. Lions know
of this habit on the part of oxen, which
are, do believe, the most foolish ami
mails under the sun, a sheep being a
very Solomon compared to them; and 1t
| is by no means uncommon for lion
| to get in such a position that herd
or span of oxen may wind him, shrek,
break their reins, and rush off into
the bush. OF course, once they are
| there, they are helpless in the dark;
and then the lion chooses the one that
he loves best and eats him at his
| leisure.
"Well, round and round went our six
| poor oxen, nearly trampling us to
death in their mad rush; indeed, had
we not hastily tumbled out of the
way, we should have been trampled to
death, or at least seriously injured.
AS it was, Harry was run over, and
poor Jim-Jim being caught by the trek
tow somewhere beneath his arm, was
hurled right across the skerm, landing
by my side only some PAGES off.
Snap went the disselboom of the
| cart beneath the transverse strain put
upon it. Had it not broken the cart
would have overset; as it was, in an
other minute, oxen, cart, trektow
reins, broken disselboom, and every
thing were soon tied in one vast heav-
ing, plunging, believing, and seeming
ly inextricable knot.
For a moment or two this state of
affairs took my attention off from the
lion that had caused it, but whilst
was wondering what on earth was to
be done next, and what we should do
If the cattle broke loose into the bush
and were lost, for cattle frightened in
this manner will go right away like
mad things, it was very suddenly re-
called in a very painful fashion.
For at that moment 1 perceived by
the light of the fire, kind of CLEAN Of
yellow travelling through the air
toward us.
1.-The lion! the lionv hallooed
Pharaoh, and as he did so, he, or rather
she, for it was a great gaunt lioness,
half wild no doubt with hunger, lit
right in the middle of the skerm, and
stood there in the smoky gloom, and
dashed her tail and roared. / seized
my rifle and fired at her, but what be-
tween the confusion, and my agita-
ton, and the uncertain light, missed
her and nearly shot Pharaoh. The
flash of the rife, however, threw the
whole scene into strong relief, and a
wild one it was l can tell you-with the
seething mass of oxen twisted all
around the cart, in suCn a fashion that
their heads looked as though they were
growing out of their rumps and their
horns seemed to protrude from their
backs; the smoking ire with just
blaze in the heart of the smoke; Jim
Jim in the foreground, where the oxen
nuu IHTOWn MIN III lntlI VIII rush,
stretched out there in terror; and then
as a center to the picture the great
gaunt lioness glaring round with
hungry yellow eyes, and roaring and
whining as she made up her mind
what to do.
"It did not take her long, just the
time that it takes a fash to die into
darkness, and then, before l could fire
again or do anything, with a most
fiendish snort she sprang upon poor
Jim-Jim.
Il heard the unfortunate lad shrek,
and then almost instantly / saw his
legs thrown into the air. The lioness
had seized him by the neck, and with
sudden jerk thrown his body over
her back so that his legs hung down
upon the further side. Then, without
the slightest hesitation, and apparently
without any difficulty she cleared the
skerm fence at a single bound, and
bearing poor Jim-Jim with her, van
ished into the darkness beyond, in the