<h2 id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III<br/> <small>SHAGGO IN A HOLE</small></h2>
<p class="cap">Down, down, down through the air sailed
Shaggo, the mighty buffalo, after he had
leaped from the cliff over the strong wire
fence. He looked toward the ground, to make
sure he would not land on the fence itself.</p>
<p>“For if I did that,” thought Shaggo, “my
legs would get all tangled up, and then I could
never run away and find a big place in which
to roam. No, indeed! I don’t want anything
like that to happen.”</p>
<p>So he was glad when he saw that he was going
to land on the other side of the fence. Once
more he looked down. The earth seemed rushing
up to meet him, but of course he was only
falling down to land on it.</p>
<p>“I’m going to fall into that clump of bushes,
just as I thought I should,” said the buffalo to
himself.</p>
<p>A moment later he had crashed into the midst
of a tangle of green leaves and branches. Into
the midst of the bushes fell the mighty Shaggo.
Down through them he went, breaking twigs<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_27"></SPAN>[27]</span>
and limbs of small trees, for Shaggo was very
heavy.</p>
<p>And in another instant Shaggo fell with a
loud thud and a thump. He fell on one side,
landing on one of his front shoulders, and at
once a terrible pain shot all through his body.
It was a much worse pain than he had ever before
felt, even when Wuffo, the oldest buffalo
of all the herd, had once butted Shaggo head
over heels when Shaggo had done something
wrong. And it was a much worse pain than
any Shaggo had felt when Poko had shoved him
with the short, black horns that all buffaloes
wear.</p>
<p>“Dear me, this is terrible!” thought Shaggo
to himself, in the way buffaloes have of thinking.
“I wonder what I have fallen on.”</p>
<p>But he suddenly lost all power of thinking,
for his senses seemed to leave him, and all he
knew was that he had fallen into a place that
was very, very dark and lonesome.</p>
<p>The fact was that Shaggo had fallen so hard
that, for a while, he was knocked senseless. If
you have ever tumbled downstairs and have
bumped your head very hard, you perhaps know
how it feels to lose your senses. You seem to go
to sleep before it is bedtime. Well, this is what
happened to Shaggo. He didn’t know what
happened after he had jumped and felt that<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_28"></SPAN>[28]</span>
sharp pain in his shoulder, except that it grew
very dark.</p>
<p>It was a real darkness, too, besides the dark
that came when Shaggo closed his eyes. The
mighty buffalo was so strong that even his heavy
fall did not make him senseless very long. In
a little while he opened his eyes again. He
could still feel the pain in his shoulder, but what
surprised him more than anything else was the
darkness that was all about him.</p>
<p>“This is very queer,” said Shaggo to himself.
“When I started to run away from our buffalo
range it was daylight. That could not have been
so very long ago, yet it is now as dark as night.
I wonder if I could have been here all that
while. Guess I’ll move about and see what the
matter is.”</p>
<p>Shaggo shook himself, thereby rousing himself
and getting wider awake from his queer
sleep. He managed to scramble to his feet, but
no sooner had he done so than the pain in his
shoulder grew sharper.</p>
<p>“Why—why!” exclaimed Shaggo, “I can
hardly move. Ouch! Oh my, this is terrible!
I hope my leg isn’t broken!”</p>
<p>Shaggo knew what it was for a buffalo to have
a broken leg. They hardly ever lived to get
over it, and he did not want anything like that
to happen.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_29"></SPAN>[29]</span></p>
<p>So Shaggo moved each one of his four legs
very carefully to see if any of them was broken.
But though his front left leg was very painful up
near his shoulder, it did not seem to be broken.
But, oh, how it hurt to move it!</p>
<p>“And yet I have to move it if I’m ever going
to get out of this place,” thought Shaggo.
“Where am I, anyhow? It’s very dark, and yet
I’m sure it isn’t night. It doesn’t smell like
night.”</p>
<p>Buffaloes, and other animals, are not like boys
and girls. Animals can tell many things by
merely smelling, where we have to see things
to know what they are. And Shaggo could tell
when it was daylight or night by smelling. And
though now, to his eyesight, it was dark all
around him, somehow or other he felt sure it was
not the darkness of night.</p>
<p>“And if it isn’t night, then I must be in some
sort of cave or hole,” thought the mighty buffalo.</p>
<p>He knew what caves were, for on the buffalo
range in the National Park were some of these
holes in the ground, where the big animals went
in to stay during the cold winter.</p>
<p>“Well, I’d better try to get out of here,”
thought Shaggo. He wished he might have
some of his buffalo friends to whom to talk, but
that was out of the question. And Shaggo did
not wish them the bad luck of wanting them to<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_30"></SPAN>[30]</span>
be with him in his trouble. Yet, all the same, he
would have been glad to have seen even Rumpo
and Bumpo now at their game of bumping one
another. But Shaggo, in a fit of temper, had
run off by himself, and now he must get out of
his trouble as best he could.</p>
<p>“And I surely am in trouble,” thought poor
Shaggo. “Oh, wow! What a pain!”</p>
<p>He moved about a little in the darkness, and
then he had to stand still, for his leg hurt him
so much. But Shaggo knew he could not stay
in the place into which he had fallen. The more
he thought about it the more he felt sure he had
fallen into a pit.</p>
<p>“But I must see what sort of a place it is into
which I have fallen,” thought the mighty buffalo.
His eyes were getting used to the darkness
now, and he could see a little. He noticed that
he was down in a sort of big hole. The bottom
and sides were of earth, and Shaggo dug his
hoofs in as he had done on the soft prairie.</p>
<p>Slowly Shaggo walked around the pit. In
most places the sides were too steep for him to
climb up. They were like the sides of a well,
straight up and down. But in one place there
was a slope like that of a hill, only it was a very
steep hill.</p>
<p>“Now if there were only some rocks, like
steps, in this hill I might get up,” thought<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_31"></SPAN>[31]</span>
Shaggo. “I wonder if I could dig some steps
with my horns. I’ll try it.”</p>
<p>There was a little more light on this side of
the cave, and Shaggo could see to try to get up.
He lowered his shaggy head, and with his short,
strong horns, dug out a little of the soft earth,
hoping to make some steps for himself. But as
he moved his head from side to side, to use his
horns, the pain in his hurt shoulder was so sharp
that again he cried:</p>
<p>“Ouch!”</p>
<p>“This will never do!” said Shaggo to himself,
as he stopped trying to dig the steps. “I’ll
never be able to get out this way. I must find
another path.”</p>
<p>He backed away from the spot where he had
been trying to dig and again slowly wandered
about the hole. It was a much larger place than
he had at first thought, and as he slowly moved
toward one end he saw that the light was
stronger.</p>
<p>“Maybe that’s a place where I can get out,”
cried poor Shaggo. “I hope it is! I’m not having
very much fun so far!”</p>
<p>His shoulder was so painful that he could not
run, as he wanted to. But he managed to get
nearer the place of the light, and then, to his
surprise, he saw an easy slope of earth leading
up into what seemed to be a large cave.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_32"></SPAN>[32]</span></p>
<p>“Maybe this is the cave where a lot of us buffaloes
stayed last winter,” thought Shaggo. “If
it is I’m all right—though I would still be back
on the range. No, I don’t see how this could be
that cave—that was inside the wire fence, and I
surely jumped outside. Besides, I don’t smell
any buffalo smell, as I would if any of my
friends had been in this cave. It must be another.”</p>
<p>And it was, as Shaggo found a little later.
The pit, into which he had jumped through the
bushes, was joined to a big cave under the mountain,
and by walking up a little hill of dirt,
Shaggo was soon in the cave. It was much
larger than the pit, and lighter, too, and Shaggo
was glad of this.</p>
<p>“Now maybe I can find something to eat and
drink,” thought the mighty buffalo. “But, most
of all, I want something to drink.”</p>
<p>So, making his way to the cave, Shaggo sniffed
and smelled.</p>
<p>He wandered on and on in the big cave, which
was getting lighter and lighter. All of a sudden
Shaggo stopped, lifted his head and sniffed
deeply.</p>
<p>“I smell water!” he bellowed aloud, he was
so excited.</p>
<p>He started to run, but his shoulder hurt him<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_33"></SPAN>[33]</span>
so he had to slow down. Then there came to
his ears a musical gurgle.</p>
<p>“I hear water, too!” he said. “Now I can
get a drink!”</p>
<p>He turned around a corner of rock and a moment
later he saw a pool of shining water in the
cave.</p>
<p>“Oh, how good that looks!” cried Shaggo.
“And how good it will taste!”</p>
<p>He made his way to the edge of the pool, but
just as he was leaning over to drink something
very surprising happened. Up in the middle of
the pool shot a steaming hot column of water.
It boiled, bubbled, and hissed, and was so hot
that Shaggo sprang back in alarm, uttering a
loud “wuff!”</p>
<p>“My! what’s this? What have I struck
now?” thought the shaggy buffalo.</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_34"></SPAN>[34]</span></p>
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