Virgin Soil 19 



who were half broken, flighty steers, a gray bird, 

 a whip-poor-will, started, more gracefully to be 

 sure, to enact the role of "Good Mrs. Stumpy." 

 One glance at her, and keeping his eyes on the spot 

 where she started her gyrations, the small boy 

 dashed under the feet of the cattle, to save the 

 nestlings that were surely going to be trampled to 

 death. Doubtless only catching a glimpse of him, 

 and possibly regarding him, when on all-fours, as 

 some new kind of wild animal, the steers began to 

 kick and plunge in the utmost terror, and crowd- 

 ing the leaders out of the furrow, the two head 

 yokes swung around toward the plow, and what 

 had been a quiet, orderly breaking team became an 

 excited and unmanageable bunch of wild cattle; 

 "beginning to mill" with a small boy out of sight 

 and in the center of them. According to their 

 stories, both Pete and old Hill were the rescuers, 

 but whoever did it, pulled out between trampling 

 feet, a very dirty and tousled youngster, holding 

 a bird in each hand, and wonder of wonders, with 

 the exception of some slight bruises, not hurt at 

 all. He had given fear no place in his mind, 

 entirely taken up with the thought of rescuing 

 the helpless, and after all the scolding and the 

 final order to keep away from the breaking, not 

 then nor ever afterward, could he feel, or would 

 he admit, the slightest regret for what he had 

 done. 



