The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1918-12-05
nm ODD ALLIANCE
Old Bull Gnu, Driven From Herd,
Found Other Companions.
Wart-Hoo and outcast Ostrich Allowed
to Travel With Depo sed King
Old Bachelors HeRceforth,
All Of Them.

There was some trouble out in the
glare of the sun on the bare plain, and
the dust was rising in clouds, T. st.
Maris writes in London Answers. A
single vulture hung owe the scene, as
If expecting profit from the inspec-
ton, and a little ~black-backed jackal,
prick cared and doglike, was watching
attentively from an unsupported hole
under a wait-a-bit thorn.
Presently forms began to loom up
among the dust as the cloud itself be-
gan to move. Beasts, extraordinarily
strange and odd beasts, with shaggy
heads and curved horns, like b%uffaloes.
long, horselike tails, and sturdy
but graceful, somewhat antelope-like
bodies, began to loom up indistinctly.
One heavy, massive, very shaggy
beast was fighting with the rest. But
always the heavy, shaggy fellow,
whose very m~assiveness spelt age.
gave back slowly on the whole, though
often master in the single contests.
He could not fight the whole herd, and
that, in fact, was what he was being
asked to do then. In other words, a
piece Of wild justice was taking place,
which is to say that, because of his
"crustiness," jealousy, lack of %chivalry.
or for ONE other, or all these reasons,
that OLD shaggy brute was being kicked
out of the herd.
AS they drew nearer, one saw that
they were blue gnus, which are br1n-
died gnus, which + bearded gnus.
which are wild beasts, and devilish
wild beasts, too. If you did not know
they were antelope, you would have
said they were buffalo, musk OK, horse
and antelope mixed in one beast. The
result, anyway, was u queer Gus
toner.
At last the old bull gnu-perhaps he
had been lord of the herd till then
acknowledged defeat, and, realizing
that he could not do the impossible,
cleared himself cleverly from a terri
BILE miXup among three other bulls,
and set off at a gallop alone.
Then at length he remembered that
it was shutdown, and time for all good
wild beasts to take the evening drink,
and he walked to one Of those we'll
worn paths which all his kind make
toward water, and slowly plodded his
heavy waJ to the river.
1t was not q great distance. in and
out among the shattered clumps of
thorny acacias,N and he was not alone,
for as he drew into the river he met
many herds of antelopes and of zebra
going to or coming from the water.
Coming up the bank behind a herd
of gaudy zebra, he was the first tC
sight, V a ridge not far Off, the tive
great, tawny, heavy, giant dog forms
seen and gone in an instant. denG
ahead. They We're lions, and his in
slant, loud warning snorts said so
and drew the zebrus' attention to the
danger, 81 that they broke away. ant
stampeded thunderously in the op
posite direction. And again it was he
galloping clumsily with them, wht
SHE'D suddenly at Il clump Of acacia:
apd began zigZagging and swervin.
: WIluly III anu Oul il Top Speeu, Snort
ing madly, SO that the zebras scat
tered, and the lioness that had beef
told off from her companions to lii
: in wait for the stampeded herds, coult
only come out and growl her disaI
pointment at them.
That night he kept with the zebras
u feeding with them wherever they went
and they did not drive him off. Per
haps they realized that as Il sentry h
was an asset. And next day an oil
: wart-hOg, as ugly as sin, came an
| struck up acquaintance with him, an
later a cock ostrich-all, perhaps, ole
: bad-tempered outcastS.
Anyway, when the day dawned the,
l. were still together, and the zebra hi,
gone, and, for all 1 know. they are t.
gether to this day, surely as strang
: an alliance as ever faced the battl
{ of life-biru, pig and antelope-ol
Il bachelors all.