WILD LIFE ACROSS THE WORLD 



buffalo again, and headed towards them across some 

 hilly ground. We were thinking only of the main herd, 

 and it was a most unpleasant surprise when we came 

 face to face with a very surly old bull which had been 

 turned out of the community by the others, probably on 

 account of his nasty temper. Anyway, he was nasty to 

 us. He resented our coming exceedingly, and tried to 

 prove the fact to us with his horns. Fortunately, how- 

 ever, we had good horses under us, and soon left him 

 behind. Still, he succeeded in driving us off our course 

 and making us lose some of the precious moments of 

 daylight. 



When we did reach the herd we found the keeper 

 on watch as usual, a wonderful example of a man who 

 can do sound, patient, monotonous work for the sheer 

 love of the thing. The herd was an obsession with 

 him. It was in his charge, and he was going to justify 

 the trust placed in him. A fine man in every sense of 

 the word, physically and morally, one of those men 

 who, having lived face to face with Nature, have learned 

 some of her secrets. He was a man of one idea, perhaps, 

 but that idea the finest of all — his Duty. He knew all 

 about his buffalo, and he told us many things about 

 them ; but he appeared to know all the other animals 

 in that wonderful Park too ; and as he sat there on his 

 horse, with one eye always on his charges, and talked to 

 us, it seemed to me that it was quite a good thing, quite 

 a big privilege, to meet a man of that stamp. He had had 



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