"That bull was like a cat gettin' to his feet, and he sights Shorty
tarin' and lights out after him. There they went lickety-split. That
bull was puffin' on the seat of Shorty's trowsers and tossin' his horns
and jest missin' Shorty by inches; and Shorty had his mouth so wide open
hollerin' that you could have throwed a side of beef down his throat;
and his eyes was buggin' out. Them bow-legs of his was stretchin' ten
yards at a clip, most like, and the boys says they could hear him
hollerin' a mile away. But that bull, stretch himself all he could,
couldn't gain an inch on Shorty, and Shorty couldn't gain an inch on the
bull, till the bull come to the other end of the forty-foot rope, and
then, whang! up goes the heels of the bull and down goes his head, and
his heels comes over--wonk! and hits Shorty right square on the head.
"Been an ordinary feller, and he wouldn't of lived to talk about it
afterwards, but seein' it was Shorty, he jest goes up in the air and
lands about ten yards away, and rolls over and hits his feet without
once gettin' off his stride--and then he _did_ start runnin', and he
didn't stop runnin' nor hollerin' till he got plumb back to the house!"
Buck Daniels sat back in his chair and guffawed at the memory. In the
excitement of the tale he had quite forgotten Kate, but when he
remembered her, she sat with her head craned a little to one side, her
hand raised for silence, and a smile, indeed, upon her lips, but never a
glance for Buck Daniels.
Pages:
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337