SHAGGO, THE MIGHTY BUFFALO - Public Domain

About SHAGGO, THE MIGHTY BUFFALO - Public Domain

Two big boy buffalo calves that had started to run over the dry, dusty prairie, their hoofs sending up little showers of dirt, stopped in front of another buffalo, much larger than either of them.

“Come on, Shaggo,” again called the buffalo who had first spoken, in animal talk, of course. “We’ll have a lot of fun.”

“Where are you going?” asked Shaggo, and as he spoke, in a deep, rumbly voice, he got up from the ground where he had been lying chewing his cud, as a cow in the meadow chews hers. And when Shaggo stood up you could see how very big he was.

[8]

Shaggo was a mighty buffalo. He was the largest and strongest of all the Government herd in the big National Park, where these animals, which once roamed the prairies in countless thousands, are now kept. For there are not now many buffaloes; not nearly so many as there were a few years ago. The Indian hunters and the white hunters killed them for food, and to get the shaggy robes the buffaloes wore. These robes were good to put over one in cold weather.

Then, too, the building of the railroads out West had scattered the buffaloes, until it seemed they must all die or be driven away. Then the Government fenced in great parks, called preserves, where the big, shaggy animals, with heads and manes larger than any lion’s that ever lived, could be at peace.

It was on one of these preserves, or ranges, in a National Park, that Shaggo lived. Though he was not the oldest buffalo of the herd he was easily the largest and strongest. He seemed to grow faster than the others, and he could easily have been the leader of the herd if he had wished. But he let another, an older bull act as the leader. Shaggo was content to eat the sweet grass, drink the cool water, and wander around in the forest or over the prairies which formed part of the park.