"Away flew the light bark!"
in splinters, but the trunk remained unmoved.
"Shoo! shoo!" cried Watty, contemptuously; but he found that shoo'ing
horns was useless; the beast still butted furiously against the harmless
pollard.
"Hallo!" cried he to a dirty boy peeping at a distance--"Hallo!" but the
lad only looked round, and vanished in an instant.
"The little fool's alarmed, I do believe!" said he; "He's only a cow-boy,
I dare say!" And with this sapient, but unsatisfactory conclusion, he
opened his book, and read aloud, to keep up his courage.
The bull hearing his voice, looked up with a most melancholy leer, the
corners of his mouth drawn down with an expression of pathetic gravity.
Luckily for Watty, the little boy had given information of his dilemma,
and the farmer to whom the bull belonged came with some of his men, and
rescued him from his perilous situation.
"The gentleman will stand something to drink, I hope?" said one of the
men.
"Certainly" said Watty.
"That's no more than right," said the farmer, "for, according to the New
Police Act, we could fine you."
"What for?"
"Why, we could all swear that when we found you, you were so elevated you
could not walk!"
Hereupon his deliverers set up a hearty laugh.