A CALF PUZZLE 



him straight, but at the last second he made a jump 

 sideways, dragging the boy with him, and plunged 

 head-first through the opening between the stable 

 and granary. His head and shoulders went through 

 easily, showing that he has the wedge shape valued 

 by breeders, but his hip bones were too wide. When 

 I reached him he had pulled through so that he 

 couldn't be backed up because of his spreading ribs 

 and couldn't go through all the way because of the 

 hip bones. He was as firmly fixed as one of those 

 bass-wood plugs the boys used to force through a 

 board when boiled soft. They used to offer it as a 

 puzzle, and ask you to get out the plug. It had 

 been put in, so why couldn't it be taken out? When 

 I examined that calf I almost made up my mind that 

 he would have to be boiled before he could be taken 

 out. At least he would have to be taken out in sec- 

 tions or we would have to move one of the buildings. 

 Before taking desperate measures, however, I exam- 

 ined things carefully and decided that by prying a 

 couple of the siding boards off the granary there 

 was a bare chance that there would be room to get 

 him through. This was done by the expenditure of 

 much man and boy power, and he got through by a 

 hair's breadth. In fact, I think it was a closer shave 



59 



