CHAPTER VIISHAGGO IN A CIRCUS
Shaggo was at first so shaken up and tumbled about, and his shoulder hurt him so much from having been hit against the side of his cage, that the buffalo did not know what had happened. But he saw that he was no longer in the darkness of the box car into which he had been placed for his train ride. He could look out and up through the wooden bars, and he could see the stars shining above him, just as he had seen them in the National Park.
“But I can’t be back at the Park, where Rumpo and Bumpo are always butting one another and playing jokes,” thought Shaggo. “I don’t believe I am back there. Never did we have such noises there as I hear all about me. It’s enough to make one deaf!”
Well might Shaggo say that, for on all sides was the hissing of the steam engines, the blowing of whistles, the crackle of flames and the shouting of men. Though Shaggo did not know it, the train on which he had been riding in the box car had been in collision with another train. There was a wreck. Shaggo’s car was brokenopen and his cage had slid out. That was what had happened. It was the first railroad wreck in which Shaggo had ever found himself, and no wonder he did not know what it was.
“All I can say is that I don’t care very much for this, whatever it is,” said the buffalo to himself.
Pretty soon some men came running along the track toward Shaggo, who was standing in his cage looking out at the stars.
“Well, thank goodness, the buffalo didn’t get loose!” said one of the men.
“That’s right,” chimed in another. “If he’d gotten loose there would be a lot of trouble.”
By this time Shaggo was getting used to the sight and smell of men, though of course he did not know what they were saying. He no longer tried to break out of his cage when they came near him. But had he known that he was in a railroad wreck the buffalo might have tried to escape. For, as was found out afterward, one part of the cage was broken, and, had Shaggo tried, he could have slipped out. But he did not know, and so he stayed inside the bars until, after a while, another train was made up to take the place of the wrecked one, and Shaggo was put on board that. Then, once again, off he started, just where to he did not know.
All he knew was that he did not at all like itin the dark, even though, now and then, men came in to give him hay and water.
Sometimes these men talked to Shaggo, and when daylight came, and the door of his car was left open, letting in light and air, one of the men stayed some little time, looking at the buffalo.
“My, but you’re a big fellow! The circus will be glad to get you,” he said.
Shaggo was so lonesome, by this time, that he moved over toward the side of the cage where the man stood, and put out his tongue. Perhaps Shaggo hoped to get a bit of salt. But the man had none. However, the man reached his hand in through the bars of the cage and patted the shaggy animal on the back. By accident he touched the animal’s sore shoulder.
Shaggo jumped back and let out a loud bellow, a sound such as a bull makes in a farmer’s pasture.
At last, after several days’ travel, during which he was never let out of the car, following the railroad wreck, Shaggo noticed that the train was standing still. Then his car was sent back and forth, in little jerks at a time, until finally it gave a big bump, shaking Shaggo up rather badly, and then it was still.
“Well, I wonder what’s going to happen now,” thought the great buffalo. “I hope they let me out of this cage, or trap, or whatever theycall it. I want to run around and get some green grass and some salt, and I want to drink at the water pool. I wonder if I can run any more? My shoulder seems very much larger, and it is stiff. It doesn’t hurt me as much as when I first fell on it, after my big jump, but I wonder if I can run with it this way?”
He tried to get a look at his shoulder, but it was still dark in his car. Suddenly, however, the door was opened. The flood of sunlight almost blinded Shaggo for a moment, and then he saw some men come in. They had ropes and boards.
“What is going to happen?” thought Shaggo.
The men talked among themselves.
“So that’s the buffalo, is it?” asked one.
“Yes, that’s the one the boss bought somewhere out West,” said another man. “We haven’t any buffaloes in our circus, and the boss thought it would be good to have one. Say, look at his hump, would you! Isn’t it big?”
“He has two humps!” said another man.
They approached nearer the cage, opened the other door of the car and looked closely at Shaggo.
“No, that swelling on his shoulder isn’t a hump,” said the first man. “Maybe he got hurt in the train wreck. I heard he was in one. We’ll have our animal doctor take a look at him.”
Shaggo sniffed at the men as they stood nearhis cage. He seemed to know they would not hurt him, and so he did not stamp around, bellow or try to break out as they put ropes around his cage and pulled it toward the door of the freight car. After a while the cage was slid down some planks, as barrels are rolled into a cellar, and then the cage was hoisted up on a wagon.
It was a much larger wagon than the one Shaggo had ridden on after he had been caught in the trap. And it was a much nicer wagon, too, for it was painted red, yellow, and green, though of course the buffalo did not know much about such colors. The green of the grass, the whiteness of salt and the blueness of the water he drank were about all the colors Shaggo knew. True he had seen the beautiful colors of the sunset, but I doubt if he really paid much attention to them. And, in a way, the wagon was almost the colors of sunset. It was a circus wagon on which Shaggo was now riding.
Over the buffalo’s cage was thrown a heavy piece of canvas—a part of one of the tents—and then Shaggo was drawn through the city streets. He did not know he was in a city, for he had never seen one before, but there he was. And after a long, rumbling ride the buffalo came to rest. The cover was taken off his cage, and for the first time in his life Shaggo found himself inside a circus barn.
It was not a circus tent, for the show was in what is called its “winter quarters.” It is no time for a circus to travel about, giving performances in a tent, when weather is cold. Cold is not good for many circus animals, so in winter they are kept in warm barns. And it was in one of these barns that Shaggo now found himself.
“Hello,” called a man to the driver of the wagon. “Did you get the new buffalo?”
“Yes, he’s here,” was the answer.
“Let’s get him into a wagon cage,” went on the first man. “The circus will soon start out on the road. This is the first buffalo we’ve ever had. Let’s get a look at him.”
A crowd of men gathered around Shaggo to look at him. Some put their hands in and stroked his shaggy coat of hair.
“Look out for that swelled shoulder of his,” warned one of the circus men. “I guess he got a bump in the train wreck, and he’s sore. We’ll have to doctor him up a bit.”
“All right. But let’s get him into one of the regular cages now, where he’ll have more room,” suggested another. “Later on, when he’s tamed a bit, we may be able to let him be out in the open, like the camels and elephants.”
Shaggo did not understand this talk. All he knew was that he was tired, hungry and thirsty. The wagon, on which his cage rested, wasbacked up to another wagon, which was really a cage on wheels. In this cage hay and water were put, and the two doors were opened. Shaggo looked around a bit, and, seeing something to eat and something to drink in the larger cage, into it he walked. The iron-barred door clanged shut on him, but Shaggo paid little attention to this. He took a long drink, and then began to eat some hay.
“We’ll leave him alone for a while,” said the men, and they walked off.
Shaggo was so hungry that all he did for a time was to eat. He put his black nose down in the pile of hay and took a large mouthful. While he was chewing this he saw something long and thin suddenly thrust itself in between the bars of his cage. All at once Shaggo was much excited.
“A snake! A snake!” cried Shaggo in animal talk. “Oh, what a big rattlesnake! Here, get out of my cage!” he rumbled.