THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN SHEEP. 373 



rent with cries of rage and shrieks of pain. To paraphrase 

 John Hay, or whoever it was that wrote it : 



He tried for to chaw the neck of the Cat, 



But the Cat he wouldn't be chawed; 

 So he lit on the back of that there Wolf, 



And bit, and clawed, and clawed. 

 Oh, the hair it flew, and the Wolf he howled. 



As the claws went into his hide, 

 And chunks of flesh were peeled from his back. 



And he flumixed, and kicked, and kiyied. 



Blood flowed until the snow looked as if a dozen chick- 

 ens had been beheaded at once and thrown out there to 

 flutter their lives away. The pent-uj) fury of Goths and 

 Vandals seemed concentrated in these fiery little creatures. 

 They writhed, struggled, clawed, and gnawed each other 

 in a way that was truly frightful. They rolled over and 

 over, and seemed like a single monster in the throes of 

 death. Sometimes they were aliuost buried in the cloud of 

 snow thrown up in their struggles. Hostile arrows from 

 the bows of enraged savages never flew with greater swift- 

 ness than did these creatures move in their efforts to devour 

 each other; nor did the arrows ever smite their victims with 

 more terrible emphasis than the claws and fangs of these 

 animals sought each other's vitals. 



When both seemed exhausted, they again drew off. 

 Again they sat, nursing their wrath and recovering their 

 wind, for perhaps two or three minutes. Still, both seemed 

 anxious for the finish, and without awaiting the call of 

 "time," both sailed in. Another cloud of hair and snow 

 filled the air and enveloped the contestants. More screams 

 and yells made the day hideous, and this round was fought 

 through much as the others had been. Round after round 

 was savagely contested, and though both of the little gladi- 

 ators were becoming visibly weakened by suffering and loss 

 of blood, neither seemed disposed to yield. After the fifth 

 round that I had seen, the rest was much longer than at 

 the end of either of the others. Neither combatant seemed 

 disposed to renew the trouble, though neither seemed the 

 least inclined to yield the belt, or the bone. I decided to 



