Buck easily, but the present situation
seemed hopeless. In his memory he harked back to Redding days, and he
recalled old Eli Gooch, the ox expert, and wondered what he would have
done. Then, as he sat, he caught sight of the sick ox reaching out its
head and deftly licking up a few drops of bran mash that had fallen from
his yoke fellow's portion. A smile spread over Rolf's face. "Just like
you; you think nothing's good except it's stolen. All right; we'll see."
He mixed a big dose of medicine, with bran, as before. Then he tied
Bright's head so that he could not reach the ground, and set the bucket
of mash half way between the two oxen. "Here ye are, Bright," he said,
as a matter of form, and walked out of the stable; but, from a crack, he
watched. Buck saw a chance to steal Bright's bran; he looked around; Oh,
joy! his driver was away. He reached out cautiously; sniffed; his long
tongue shot forth for a first taste, when Rolf gave a shout and ran in.
"Hi, you old robber! Let that alone; that's for Bright."

The sick ox was very much in his own stall now, and stayed there for
some time after Rolf went to resume his place at the peephole. But
encouraged by a few minutes of silence, he again reached out, and
hastily gulped down a mouthful of the mixture before Rolf shouted and
rushed in armed with a switch to punish the thief. Poor Bright, by his
efforts to reach the tempting mash, was unwittingly playing the game,
for this was proof positive of its desirableness.

After giving Buck a few cuts with the switch, Rolf retired, as before.
Again the sick ox waited for silence, and reaching out with greedy
haste, he gulped down the rest and emptied the bucket; seeing which,
Rolf ran in and gave the rogue a final trouncing for the sake of
consistency.

Any one who knows what slippery elm, peppermint, soda, sulphur, colic,
and ox do when thoroughly interincorporated will not be surprised to
learn that in the morning the stable needed special treatment, and of
all the mixture the ox was the only ingredient left on the active list.
He was all right again, very thirsty, and not quite up to his usual
standard, but, as Van said, after a careful look, "Ah, tell you vot, dot
you vas a veil ox again, an' I t'ink I know not vot if you all tricky
vas like Bright."

Chapter 57. Rolf and Skookum at Albany

The Red Moon (August) follows the Thunder Moon, and in the early part of
its second week Rolf and Van, hauling in the barley a