The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1918-12-06
i'm ODD ALLIANCE
Old Bull Gnu, Driven From Herd,
Found Other Companions.
Wart-Hoo and Outcast Ostrich Allowed
to Travel With Oeposed King
Old Bachelors Henceforth,
All Of Them.

There was some trouble out in The
glare Of the sun on the bare plain. and
.he dust was rising in clouds. L. ST.
Maris writes in London Answers. 4.
single Nuiture hong over the scene. as
if expecting profit from the inSpec-
ton, and a little hlack-backed iackal.
prick cared and doglike, was watching
attentively from III n~nsuspccted hole
under Il 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 bu~ffaIoes,
long, horselike tails. and sturdy
but graceful. somewhat anteiope-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 massiveness 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
uShCu W W. tItl. III olltcI NoIuS. n
piece of wild justice was taking place,
which is to say that, because of his
"crustiness," jealousy, lack of chiyalry,
or for some other, or az these reasons.
that old shaggy brute was being kicked
out of the herd.
AS they drew nearer. n saw that
they We're blue gnuS. which are brfn-
died gnus, which are bearded gnuS,
which are wild beasts. and dcviliAh
wild beasts. too. If YOU did not know
they We're antelope, you would have
said they were buffalo. musk OK, horse
and antelope mike in one beast. The
result, anyway, was a queer GUS
toner.
At last the old quill gnu-perhaps he
had been lord OF the herd till then
acknowledged defeat. and. realizing
that he could not DO the impossible,
cleared himself cleyerly from Il terri
BILE mixup among three other bulls,
and set off at Il gallop alone.
Then at length he remembered that
1t 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 way to the river.
1t WAS not Il great distance. in and
out among the shattered clumps Of
thorny acacias. 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 to
sight. over a ridge not far off. the two
great. tawny. heavy, giant dog forms,
seen and one in an instant. dead
ahead. They We're lions, and his in.
slant. loud warning snortS said so.
and drew the zebrls' attention TO the
danger. SO that they broke away. and
~stalnpeded thunderously in the OPP
posite direction. Iii again it was he.
galloping clnlnsily With them. who
SHE'D suddenly at II clnmp of lcaciaS
and began Zi@Zagging and SWerving
wildly in and out at top speed. snort
ing madly, so that the zebra> seat
tered, and the lioneSs that had been
told off from her companions to lie
in wait for the stampeded herds. could
only colne out and growl her disap-
pointment at them.
That night he kept with the zebras,
feeding With them wherever they went.
and they did not drive him off. Per-
haps they realized that as Il sentry he
was an asset. And next day an old
whrt.hog, as ugly as sin. anne and
struck up acquaintance with him, and
later a cock ostrich-all. perhaps, old,
bad-tempered outcasts.
Anyway. when the day dawlled they
were still together. and the zebra had
gone and. for all l know. they are to.
gether to this day. surely as strange
an alliance AS ever faced the battle
Of life-bird. pig and anteIope-old
bachelors all.
A Worlds Record,