NOT WHOLLY LOST BUT GETTING SCARCE 



271 



THE MAGNIFICENT YOKE OF PRIZE WINNERS. 



Portland quarries, that they are re- 

 maining longer in that vicinity than 

 anywhere else. There was a time 

 when the entire work of the Freestone 

 Quarries was done by the best oxen 

 of the state. Those ponderous animals 

 hauled the heavy loads of stone, and 

 enterprising traders searched every 

 nook and corner for the finest and 

 heaviest, and for them paid a special 

 price. At the recent celebration, some 

 thirty oxen were brought in from the 

 surrounding farms, and visitors were 

 more greatly astonished by this display 

 than by any other. Some visitors had 

 never seen oxen in actual use on a farm. 

 It is probable that a similar exhibition 

 could not have been made in any other 

 part of the state. The accompanying 

 illustrations show this exhibit. Much 

 as we may admire the oxen and love 

 his patient, plodding ways, we know 

 that he must be relegated to the 

 museum in which we keep the warm- 

 ing pan and the candle lantern. It is 

 incongruous to Fee a yoke of oxen 

 in the fields, and a limousine dashing 

 along the country road at the rate of 

 a mile a minute. Things have become 

 swifter since you and I were young. 



Alas, and yet with joy we say it, we 

 are in the era of the flying machine, 

 and we have no occupation for an ox. 

 Is it not curious, when we think of 

 the sheep, that the very animals that 

 have driven them out are the animals 

 that took the best care of them? The 

 sheep is proverbially associated with 

 the shepherd dog. If you want to see 

 a pretty, rural sight, go to the estate 

 of John D. Rockefeller, Pocantico 

 Hills, Tarrytown-on-Hudson, New 

 York, and there see an old-time shep- 

 herd with his trained dogs. Those 

 dogs seem to know as much as a human 

 being. They care for the sheep. One 

 might say with little exaggeration that 

 they care for them as lovingly as 

 would the shepherd himself. The sheep 

 seem to realize that the dogs are their 

 friends. The dog even tells them the 

 best feeding ground, prevents them 

 from going over the same ground 

 twice, and guides them to the pasture 

 in which grows the best and most suc- 

 culent herbage. So here's to you, the 

 friends of my boyhood. We recognize 

 the fact that we must advance. Good- 

 by, oxcart and oxen, and welcome, fly- 

 ing machine ; good-by, Charles and 



