So after breakfast we detailed men to take charge of
the different animals, and herd them out in the tall grass. It was a
beautiful sight to see those rare animals, gathered from all over the
world, eating grass together, in perfect peace, in this new country. The
animals that we thought would stand without hitching, like the
elephants, were cared for by their attendants, but the animals that
might wander from their own fireside, were picketed out, or held by long
ropes, the deer, the buffalo, the zebras, the sacred cattle, the elk,
the yaks, the camels and that kind, were tied with long lariats, and
held by the men detailed by the managers. For a couple of hours the
animals just gorged themselves, after they had kicked up their heels a
spell and rolled in the grass. Then one of the elephants got up on his
hind feet and held up two toes, like boys in school hold up two fingers
when they want to go in swimming, and the elephant started for a creek
and went in the water, and the whole herd followed, and they spattered
each other, and ducked and rolled around just like school boys. The
whole population of the town, whites and Indians, came to the bank of
the river to watch the fun.
Pa was holding his elk by a rope and one of the managers had a rope
around the neck of a giraffe: the treasurer and the ticket taker was
leading the zebras, and everybody was busy with some kind of animal, and
I had a rope around an antelope, and some of our men on horseback were
herding the buffaloes.
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