SHAGGO IS HAPPY
The sun was shining into Shaggo’s cage when he awakened. At first the
mighty buffalo did not remember all that had happened. He recalled a
queer smell, which came just after he was tied with the ropes. And he
remembered going to sleep. Now he was awake.
“But I feel so weak――as if I could not stand up,” said Shaggo to
himself. “It’s like the time I ate some poison weed in the big Park,
and was sick until I ate another kind of weed that Wuffo showed me,
and then I grew better. But I am weak in my legs now, as I was then. I
wonder if I can stand up?”
Shaggo tried, but he found that the ropes were still around his legs,
so, after one or two trials, he gave up and remained lying on his side
in his cage.
“I guess it isn’t time for me to get up yet,” thought the buffalo.
“Maybe, as Dido said, the men are trying to do me good, though tying my
legs with ropes is a queer way. But I guess――I guess――I――”
But Shaggo could say no more. His head fell over to one side and he
went to sleep again.
The next time he awakened he felt much better and stronger. There was a
queer feeling in his shoulder, too. It pained him some, but not as much
as at first, and, when he managed to get a look at it, he saw that the
lump was gone.
“Hurray!” cried Shaggo, in buffalo talk, of course. “That big lump
melted away while I slept! I wonder how it happened? Anyhow, I’m glad.
Now if those ropes were only off my legs――”
He kicked out a little with his hind feet. To his surprise his legs
were no longer tied. His front ones were also free. There was still a
queer smell in his nose, and on his shoulder was a white rag. Shaggo
tried to reach around and pull it off with his teeth, but could not.
Then he noticed on the floor of his cage, in front of him, a pail of
something that smelled very good. It was a mixture of hay, oats, wheat
and bran, stirred up in warm water and a little salt, and Shaggo felt
so hungry that he ate it all up.
“My, but that was good!” said the buffalo to himself. “I believe I can
stand up now. I feel much stronger.”
Shaggo managed to scramble to his feet. He was not as strong as he had
thought, for he swayed from side to side as a baby does when it is
learning to walk. But, after a while, when he had eaten a little hay
and taken some water, Shaggo began to feel his strength coming back to
him.
He took a few steps, but was soon glad enough to lie down again.
“I guess I’m cured of the rheumatism, or indigestion, or whatever
was the matter with me,” thought the mighty buffalo, “but I must go
easy. I can’t trot around my cage yet. I must wait until I am a little
stronger.”
Shaggo went to sleep again, and he must have slept all day and all
night, for when he awakened once more the sun was again shining in
his cage. He felt much stronger now, and when he walked about, his
shoulder, though a little stiff, did not pain nearly so much.
“Hello there, Shaggo!” called Dido, the dancing bear, from his cage.
“How are you feeling?”
“Well, a little queer and shaky,” answered the buffalo; “but I’m
getting better. Say, what happened to me, anyhow?”
“I think you had what they called an operation,” answered the bear.
“I don’t know much about such things, but they put you to sleep with
medicine, and when you were in dreamland they took that extra hump off
your shoulder.”
“I’m glad they did,” said Shaggo. “I feel ever so much better without
it. I begin to feel more like myself――more like when I was the
strongest buffalo on the range in the National Park.”
“I’m pleased to hear that,” said Dido. “Maybe, now, they will teach you
to do tricks.”
“Maybe,” agreed Shaggo.
The doctor with the big beard and the shiny glasses came with the zoo
keepers to look at Shaggo in his cage.
“Ah, my operation was a success,” said the big doctor. “Now that
buffalo will be as good as new.”
And as the days went on and Shaggo became stronger and stronger and his
shoulder healed he did, indeed, become “as good as new.”
Once more his eyes shone brightly and he held his head up. He no longer
limped about the cage, but walked as well as any of the lions, tigers
or bears in the zoo.
Each day a keeper came to feed Shaggo, and, after a while, the man
put his hand in through the bars and rubbed Shaggo’s head. And Shaggo
felt so grateful to the men for curing his sore shoulder that the big
buffalo did not try to bite or kick or butt with his horns. He licked
the man’s hand with his tongue.
“Well, I guess you are getting tame, Shaggo,” said the keeper. “It was
a good thing we bought you from the circus, and it was a good thing the
doctor made you well. In a little while I will let you out in the yard
to run around. It is not good for a big animal like you to be shut in a
cage all the while.”
And you can imagine how glad Shaggo was when, one day, his cage was
opened and he was allowed to come out. Of course he was not permitted
to roam wherever he pleased, but there was a big yard in the zoo where
he could walk about and even run. And when he ran and found that his
shoulder did not hurt him, Shaggo felt like bellowing at the top of his
voice, he was so glad.
“Now I am myself again!” cried Shaggo.
And Shaggo did enjoy himself in the big yard of the zoological park.
Some camels and zebus, as well as other animals of the kind that eat
grass and hay, were also allowed to roam in this yard, and many people
came to watch them. Shaggo was much admired, especially his big head
and the mighty hump on his back――this was the real hump that belonged
there. The other hump――the sore one――had been taken off and Shaggo
limped no more.
One day some deer were put in the yard with Shaggo and the camels. The
deer had horns, and when Shaggo saw them he thought of the time he had
driven the herd of antelopes away from the water hole.
[Illustration: Shaggo hit the fence with all his might.]
“But we will not quarrel about who is to drink first here,” said one of
the deer. “There is water in the tank, enough for all of us.”
“No,” said Shaggo, “here we are a happy family, and we will not
quarrel.”
In time Shaggo grew to be very good friends with all the other animals
of the zoo, but, best of all, he liked the deer, for they had come from
the far West, the land of the prairies where he used to live, and they
could talk to him about that country.
One day White Tail, the largest of the deer in the zoo, was eating
grass near a wooden fence, and, in some manner, White Tail’s horns
became caught in a crack of the boards. At first the deer thought
he could pull himself loose, but the more he pulled and twisted the
tighter his horn seemed to be caught.
“Help! Help!” finally White Tail called to his animal friends. “I am
caught in the fence and can not get loose!”
Some of the other deer tried to pry him loose with their horns, but
they could not.
“Oh, if only Bundo, the big elephant were here, he could get me loose!”
cried White Tail. “With his strong head he could break the board that
is holding me fast.”
But Bundo was in another part of the zoo then, and no keepers were
near, or one of them would have helped the deer. Then Shaggo saw what
the matter was.
“Ho there!” cried the mighty buffalo. “Stand aside, everybody, and I’ll
get White Tail loose!”
“How can you?” asked Dido, the dancing bear.
“With my big, hard head I can ram that fence and break the board as
easily as anything,” the mighty buffalo answered. “I am not afraid of
hurting my shoulder now. Stand still, White Tail, and I’ll get you
loose.”
White Tail, the deer, stood still, his head held down where his horn
was caught in a crack in the fence. Shaggo backed off a little way, and
then, with his head lowered, he ran across the yard. Taking care not to
bump into White Tail, Shaggo hit the fence with all his might.
There was a crash, a splintering of wood, and the deer was set free. He
shook his head, and said:
“Thank you, Shaggo! You are, indeed, a mighty buffalo.”
“Oh, that was nothing,” said Shaggo. “I could have broken a much
thicker board than that, now my shoulder is well.”
The keepers came running up at the sound of the crash, and when they
saw what Shaggo had done to help the deer they were very glad. The
fence was mended, and fixed so no more animals would be caught in it.
“It is a good thing to have a big head,” said Dido to Shaggo, when they
went to sleep in their cages that night.
And so, for many years Shaggo, the mighty buffalo, lived in the zoo,
and hundreds of boys and girls came to look at him and admire him.
Sometimes he wished he might go back to the prairies, and see his old
friends, and watch Rumpo and Bumpo knock each other in somersaults.
“But it is very nice, here in the zoo,” said Shaggo. “And, who knows?
perhaps some day I may join the circus again and travel out West.
Then I would have some wonderful adventures to tell the rest of the
buffaloes.”
But the last I heard of him, Shaggo was still in the zoological park,
and I hope he lives there and is happy for many long years.
THE END
Transcriber’s Notes:
――Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
――Punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.
――Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.
End of Project Gutenberg's Shaggo, the Mighty Buffalo, by Richard Barnum