THE WILD BISON 
119 
Ely added. “See how the hair and the hump make 
his front legs look longer than his rear legs?” 
“Oh, look at that!” Mother suddenly exclaimed. 
“Its a baby, a real baby bison!” 
Everyone looked. They were delighted to see the 
little fellow. It had been hidden at first behind its 
mother, who stood near. 
“Nice-looking calf, sure enough,” said Uncle Ely. 
“Cutest thing I ever saw!” Father was saying, “I 
wish we could buy one to keep.” 
“Huh!” Uncle Ely grumbled. “This calf will grow 
up to be a bull like that one yonder, with sharp horns. 
He'd toss you over the house some day.” 
They enjoyed visiting the herd for the remainder 
of that morning. 
“One more thing you ought to remember about 
the bison,” said Uncle Ely that night. “Most of his 
kind have been killed. When white men were build¬ 
ing the first railroads into western America, there 
were herds in which roamed millions of wild bison. 
As the herds passed across the tracks, sometimes they 
would actually stop trains for hours at a time; or in 
swimming rivers they would block the progress of 
boats. 
“Their flesh was eaten by Indians and white men 
