elpless creature in the field.

Poor Buck seemed worse than ever. He was flat on his side, with his
spine humped up, moaning and straining at intervals. But now relief was
in sight--so thought the men. With a tin dipper they tried to pour
some relief into the open mouth of the sufferer, who had so little
appreciation that he simply taxed his remaining strength to blow it out
in their faces. Several attempts ended the same way. Then the brute, in
what looked like temper, swung his muzzle and dashed the whole dipper
away. Next they tried the usual method, mixing it with a bran mash,
considered a delicacy in the bovine world, but Buck again took notice,
under pressure only, to dash it away and waste it all.

It occurred to them they might force it down his throat if they could
raise his head. So they used a hand lever and a prop to elevate the
muzzle, and were about to try another inpour, when Buck leaped to his
feet, and behaving like one who has been shamming, made at full gallop
for the stable, nor stopped till safely in his stall, where at once he
dropped in all the evident agony of a new spasm.

It is a common thing for oxen to sham sick, but this was the real thing,
and it seemed they were going to lose the ox, which meant also lose a
large part of the harvest.

In the stable, now, they had a better chance; they tied him, then raised
his head with a lever till his snout was high above his shoulders. Now
it seemed easy to pour the medicine down that long, sloping passage. But
his mouth was tightly closed, any that entered his nostrils was blown
afar, and the suffering beast strained at the rope till he seemed likely
to strangle.

Both men and ox were worn out with the struggle; the brute was no
better, but rather worse.

"Wall," said Rolf, "I've seen a good many ornery steers, but that's the
orneriest I ever did handle, an' I reckon we'll lose him if he don't get
that poison into him pretty soon."

Oxen never were studied as much as horses, for they were considered a
temporary shift, and every farmer looked forward to replacing them with
the latter. Oxen were enormously strong, and they could flourish without
grain when the grass was good; they never lost their head in a swamp
hole, and ploughed steadily among all kinds of roots and stumps; but
they were exasperatingly slow and eternally tricky. Bright, being the
trickier of the two, was made the nigh ox, to be more under control.
Ordinarily Rolf could manage