Читать книгу Shaggo, the Mighty Buffalo: His Many Adventures онлайн

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“Oh, look at the lovely mud!” cried Soako. “Let’s see who will be the first in!”

“I can beat you!” bellowed Poko, and he gave a playful dig with his horns in Shaggo’s ribs.

Instead of taking it good-naturedly, as most of the buffaloes would have done, Shaggo grumbled:

“Here! What are you doing? Quit your fooling!”

“Oh, excuse me! I didn’t mean anything!” said Poko, for he knew better than to get Shaggo “mad.” More than one member of the herd had felt the strength of Shaggo’s mighty head, though the big buffalo had never done any real harm. Whenever any one plagued him, he just butted them head over heels, as a goat might do.

Down the slope ran Poko after Soako, and soon the two buffaloes were wallowing around in the mud hole. “Wallow” is just the word that tells what they did, and so the places where the buffaloes went on the prairies to get away from mosquitoes, gnats and flies came to be called “wallows.” You may read about them in stories of the old West.

Over and over, and around and around in the mud rolled Soako and Poko. They sank themselves down in the deep wallow until only their nose tips stuck out, so they could breathe. They covered themselves with mud. And if their fathers or mothers could have seen them, instead of telling them to come out, the older buffaloes would have gone into the mud themselves.