n to read in the shadow of the cart. Looking
up, I saw a bull grazing alone on the prairie more than a mile distant.
I was tired of reading, and taking my rifle I walked toward him. As
I came near, I crawled upon the ground until I approached to within a
hundred yards; here I sat down upon the grass and waited till he should
turn himself into a proper position to receive his death-wound. He was
a grim old veteran. His loves and his battles were over for that season,
and now, gaunt and war-worn, he had withdrawn from the herd to graze by
himself and recruit his exhausted strength. He was miserably emaciated;
his mane was all in tatters; his hide was bare and rough as an
elephant's, and covered with dried patches of the mud in which he had
been wallowing. He showed all his ribs whenever he moved. He looked like
some grizzly old ruffian grown gray in blood and violence, and scowling
on all the world from his misanthropic seclusion. The old savage looked
up when I first approached, and gave me a fierce stare; then he fell
to grazing again with an air of contemptuous indifference. The moment
after, as if suddenly recollecting himself, he threw up his head, faced
quickly about, and to my amazement came at a rapid trot directly toward
me. I was strongly impelled to get up and run, but this would have been
very dangerous. Sitting quite still I aimed, as he came on, at the
thin part of the skull above the nose. After he had passed over about
three-quarters of the distance between us, I was on the point of firing,
when, to my great satisfaction, he stopped short. I had full opportunity
of studying his countenance; his whole front was covered with a huge
mass of coarse matted hair, which hung so low that nothing but his two
forefeet were visible beneath it; his short thick horns were blunted and
split to the very roots in his various battles, and across his nose and
forehead were two or three large white scars, which gave him a grim and
at the same time a whimsical appearance. It seemed to me that he stood
there motionless for a full quarter of an hour, looking at me through
the tangled locks of his mane. For my part, I remained as quiet as he,
and looked quite as hard; I felt greatly inclined to come to term with
him. "My friend," thought I, "if you'll let me off, I'll let you off."
At length he seemed to have abandoned any hostile design. Very slowly
and deliberately he began to turn about; little by little his side came
into view