Perth Amboy evening news., 1905-08-11

A COMET.
bows, l was less watchful than |
should have been, and n of the
calves, with a vigorous butt, threw
the beam of the yoke against my face,
giving me a black y which would
surely have taken a premium at
Donneybrook fair. Never mind. in
half a minute the yoke was on, and
the sight of my new team" was worth
all the knocks which had lately come
my way.
At a word, my assistant UNFINISHED
the ropes from the tree, and taking
n rope in each hand, l proceeded to
drive my buffalo calves. I.soon found
they needed little urging, but a great
deal of restraining. Believing an
grily they leaped forward down the
road, dragging me in their wake,
leaning back on the ropes though l
was. At first l only walked, but my
strides became longer and longer, and
faster and faster, until l found my
self the tail-end of a comet, which was
going at a rate of speed rather too
great for my peace of mind. 1t had
been raining, and the road was wet
and slippery, and under the circum-
stances | hated to think of losing my
footing. The pair of calves, which at
that time were about ten weeks old,
weighed nearly three hundred and fiji
ty pounds, most of it bone and muscle,
and nc Mofoh0d ohO11f n thiy1 af 4Ls1
it was a physical impossibility to
hold the youngsters back by sheer
strength when they both pulled to-
gether. So suddenly let go one rope
and threw all my weight on the other.
The result was what | expected; the
calf | held on to swung round to the
right, and the other, being yoked to
him, was obliged to swing with him.
Presently they came to a s~tandstill.
headed for home, and l walked round
them, picked up my other rope and
was ready to start them up again.
The first mad rush being over. they
were much calmer, and, finding that
the yoke did not hurt them, they
logged along the road side by side
as though they had done it every dav
for years. But every time we came
to a gap in the fence they showed
their dislike for the road, by making
a dash for the fields, and it reouired
constant watchfulness.
All went well until we were passing
a field in which a number Of cattle
were grazing. Among the lot were
two big red steers, which have n had
reputation hereabouts. These two AT
once became interested in the calves
and started for the fence at a gallon
The fence itself was a rather fimsy
AFFAIR, m | knew that if the big fell
low broke through it and got into the
road with the buffalo calves, there
might be a most disagreeable mix-up.
80 | started to urge the calves a lit.
tie, but as they had already become
somewhat nervous at the demonstra-
tion OF the steers, they broke into a
run and away we went for more than
a quarter of a mile before | thought
1t wise to swing the team round as
had done before. This time, instead
OF turning neatly about, thew got
their feet over the ropes, and be-
coming frightened, tore off down the
road again, in spite of all | could do.
me ropes were 30 tangled up that I
could hardly tell which was wb;ch
SO | decided to let the calves have
their heads and run themselves ont
Holding the ropes just clear of the
ground therefore, I jumped in behind
my pacemakers, and. as an athlete
wohld say, let them pun me throush
ERNEST HAROLD BAYNEs