SHAGGO GOES TO SLEEP
Shaggo, the mighty buffalo, felt as though he had met an old friend
when the bear in the next cage said that his name was Dido.
Shaggo wanted to talk, and to ask a lot of questions of the shaggy
bear, who was eating the carrot he had clawed from the buffalo’s cage.
But just as Shaggo crowded close to the bars of his cage, to ask how
Dido felt and how he liked it where he was, a great growling and
snarling arose at one end of the big building where the zoo animals
were kept.
“What’s the matter now?” asked Shaggo.
“Oh, it’s the keeper coming to feed us,” answered Dido. “I hope he
brings me some sweet buns. What would you like best, Mr. Buffalo? I
don’t believe I know your name,” said the bear.
“I am called Shaggo,” was the answer. “And, to tell you the truth, I do
not feel much like eating. I am not very hungry.”
“Then there must be something the matter with you!” exclaimed Dido, as
the growling, snarling and crying among the other zoo animals sounded
louder and louder. “I am always hungry. You’ve heard it said, I dare
say, ‘as hungry as a bear.’ Well, I guess I’m that bear,” laughed Dido,
showing his teeth, “for I’m always ready to eat.”
Shaggo looked out through the bars of his cage and saw a man coming
along with a big basket, and Shaggo could smell that the basket held
good things to eat. But, somehow or other, the buffalo, as he had said,
was not hungry. He felt rather ill, and as he twisted his eyes to get a
look at his shoulder, he saw that the lump on it was much larger.
“And it hurts worse, too,” said Shaggo to himself. “I haven’t felt
exactly well since I gave that big jump and sailed over the wire fence
away from the range. It surely must be a punishment on me for leaving
Bumpo, Rumpo and the other buffaloes.”
But by this time the man with the basket was in front of the bear’s
cage. He picked out some buns, the man did, and held them up for Dido
to see. Shaggo could also see them.
“Now then, Dido!” cried the zoo keeper, “here are some of the nice buns
you like. Let me see you dance and do some of your tricks before I give
you any. Dance for the boys and girls!”
Then Shaggo noticed that, following the man around as he fed the
animals were a number of boys and girls who had come to the zoo as a
sort of picnic. They were allowed to come in and see the animals eat.
“Dance for the boys and girls, Dido,” called the man.
Shaggo did not understand this talk, but the bear seemed to do so, for
he shuffled to the front of his cage.
“Hi there, Shaggo, watch me if you want to see some fun!” called Dido
to the buffalo in the next cage. “This is one of my tricks. I do it
nearly every day. Watch me and perhaps you can learn to dance.”
“No, I don’t believe I can,” replied Shaggo. He and Dido talked in
animal language, which, of course, neither the keeper nor the boys and
girls could understand. “My shoulder is too sore for me to dance,” went
on the buffalo.
But Dido was not troubled that way, and soon he was sliding about his
cage, doing a funny, shuffling dance, waving his head from side to
side, and holding out his paws like a begging dog. Around and around
his cage went the bear, while the boys and girls, gathered out in
front, laughed as they watched the funny antics of the trained bear.
“That’s good, Dido!” called the man. “Now then, turn a somersault, and
you shall have an extra bun!”
Dido must have known what the man said, for the bear suddenly got down
on all four legs, put his head between his front paws, kicked up with
his hind legs, and over he went! Dido turned as good a somersault as
any boy could do, and when he stood upright again, and held one paw out
through the bars of his cage, the boys and girls laughed harder than
ever.
“Well, you have earned your buns, Dido!” cried the man, and he tossed
half a dozen into the bear’s cage. Then Dido shuffled back into a
corner to be by himself while he ate. The children stood watching the
bear a little longer, and then some of them passed on to stand in front
of the cage where Shaggo was kept.
After the keeper had passed on, to feed the lions and tigers of the
zoo, Dido once more spoke to Shaggo.
“Here is an extra cinnamon bun I do not want,” said the kind bear. “Eat
it, Shaggo,” and with a toss of his paw Dido sent the bun spinning
through the bars of the buffalo’s cage. Shaggo sniffed at it and
nibbled one end.
“Say, what’s the matter with you?” asked Dido. “You don’t seem at all
like a lively chap, Shaggo.”
“I’m not,” answered the buffalo. “Something is wrong with me. It’s my
shoulder, I guess. See how swelled it is.”
“You have got a funny lump there,” said the bear. “What do you think it
is?”
“Well, Don, the runaway dog, and some of the animals in the circus said
it might be rheumatism,” answered Shaggo. “I was in the circus you
know, with Tum Tum, the elephant. It was Don at first, and afterward
Tum Tum, who told me about you. That’s how I knew your name.”
“Dear old Don and Tum Tum, that jolly elephant!” exclaimed Dido. “I
wish I could see them again. So they told you about me, did they? Well,
some of those circus animals know a lot, but I think they’re all wrong
about what’s the matter with you. I don’t believe that’s rheumatism you
have.”
“What is it then?” asked Shaggo. “I know it hurts a lot.”
“You’ve got indigestion, that’s what you’ve got!” declared the bear.
“You’ve got indigestion from not eating enough. Come, now, eat up your
hay, and then swallow that bun and you’ll feel better.”
“Well, perhaps I will,” agreed Shaggo. “I’ll try it, anyhow. Maybe it
is indigestion I have, but I’ve been thinking, all the while, that it
was rheumatism.”
So the mighty buffalo, who did not feel as strong as he used to feel
when he roamed the plains of the big Park, nibbled the bit of bun the
dancing bear had tossed him, and then ate some hay. But, instead of
feeling better, Shaggo seemed to feel worse. At last he was in such
pain that he stretched out in the corner of his cage and groaned.
Animals can groan when they are in trouble as well as persons can, and
when Shaggo groaned you could hear it a long way off.
“My goodness! what’s the matter, Shaggo?” asked Dido, waking up from a
little sleep. “Is that one of the tricks you learned in the circus?”
“I didn’t learn any tricks in the circus,” groaned Shaggo. “Maybe
that’s why they didn’t want me there. And I limped, too. I guess they
didn’t want a limping buffalo. But groaning is not a trick. I do it
because my shoulder lump hurts me so.”
“That’s too bad,” said Dido. “I wish I could do something for you.”
By this time Shaggo’s groans had been heard by some of the zoo keepers.
One of them came running into the building where Shaggo’s cage stood.
By this time it was early evening, and there were no visitors in the
zoological park.
“What’s the matter here?” asked the keeper. Of course Shaggo could
not answer and tell what ailed him, but the man knew something about
animals, and when he saw the buffalo crouched down in the corner of
the cage and noticed how much larger the lump on the animal’s shoulder
had become, the keeper said:
“We’ve got to have a doctor here. I’ll get one.”
A little later another man came in to look at Shaggo――three or four men
altogether, but only one was the doctor, and he had a queer smell about
him――a smell that Shaggo did not like. The other animals, too, sniffed
the air strongly. They did not like drugs or medicine.
“Take a look at the lump on that buffalo’s shoulder, doctor,” said one
of the zoo keepers.
“Hum! I can’t see it very well,” the doctor said. “Can’t you bring him
out here in the open?”
Shaggo did not pay much attention to what was going on, but, a little
later, he felt the prick of a stick which was being poked in his ribs,
and naturally, he moved away from it. He limped over to the front of
his cage to look at the men gathered there.
“Now I can see the lump better,” said the doctor. “It’s too bad. It
must be taken off. That’s the only way to cure that buffalo.”
“How can the lump be taken off?” asked the zoo keeper.
“You’ll have to get another doctor,” replied the first one. “You need
a doctor who knows more about animals than I do. There’s one in New
York, and I heard he was coming out this way. I’ll see if I can get
him.”
“I wish you would,” said the zoo keeper.
At last the celebrated animal doctor arrived. One evening Shaggo saw a
number of men enter the zoo and walk over to his cage. There was that
same, queer medicine smell.
“There’s the buffalo,” said the zoo keeper. “Can you cure that lump on
his shoulder, doc?”
“I think so,” answered a big, bearded man, who wore large shiny
glasses. “But first we must put the buffalo to sleep and bind him with
ropes so he will not kick when I try to cure him. Yes, we must put him
to sleep.”
Of course Shaggo did not know what all this talk meant, and he was
rather frightened when, a little later, a number of men poked long
poles through the bars of his cage. Some of the poles had ropes on
them, and though he tried to keep out of the way of these ropes, they
were soon cast about his legs, and poor Shaggo found himself all
tangled up.
“Dido! Dido! What are they doing to me?” bellowed Shaggo to his friend
the dancing bear.
“Don’t worry, Shaggo,” Dido answered. “They will not hurt you. The
keepers are trying to cure your indigestion, or whatever it is you
have. They will not hurt you.”
But Shaggo could not believe this, so he kicked and struggled, hurting
his sore shoulder all the more, until, at last, he was so tangled in
the ropes that he fell down on the bottom of his cage.
“Ah, now we have him!” said the doctor. “Now I’ll put him to sleep, and
cure him.”
Shaggo was now so tied with ropes that he could not move. He lay on
one side, and a moment later a cloth was put over his nose. There was
a strange, sweetish smell to the cloth. Shaggo tried not to breathe
the perfume from it, but he could not help himself. He began to feel
very strange. His breath came more and more slowly. Then he began to
feel as if he were once again sailing through the air as he did when he
jumped. He seemed to be floating on clouds or a feather bed. His eyes
closed――he could hear, as though from a far distance, the voice of Dido
saying:
“They won’t hurt you, Shaggo.”
Then Shaggo fell into a deep sleep.