Hiram in the Middle West

by Burbank L. Todd

"If I only had a club!"

Hiram Strong had not overpowering fear of this, or any other, bull. He quite realized the danger threatening whoever stood in the way of the beast. But he had dodged more than one animal of the kind, and with a hardwood stick in his hand he would not have been panic-stricken at this meeting. The nose of a bull is a very tender spot.

"Oh, if I only had a club," the young farmer repeated to himself.

But Hiram had no club, and he saw no other weapon within his reach. As Turner's bull charged across the yard directly at him, Hiram skipped backward until he reached the steps, and up those he stumbled.

The figure of the young fellow—the only living thing in his path—evidently held the bull's attention. He came on after Hiram, uttering another bellow.

Within those few seconds the excitement outside the new house was communicated to those inside. The music stopped suddenly; the girls began to scream. And when the boys at the bay windows began to shout that Turner's bull was loose a good many of the dancers and spectators acted as though the beast was already upon the dancing floor.

And it actually did seem as though the animal had that very intention of entering the partly finished house. Hiram had no more than leaped up the steps than the bull plunged clatteringly after him.

Had there been a bit of plank or a piece of scantling lying about, the young fellow might have beaten the bull back. But the girls that afternoon had cleaned up the rubbish all too thoroughly.

Hiram flashed a single glance behind him. Within the wide opening left for the front door he caught a glimpse of the startled faces of both Lettie Bronson and Miss Pringle. They were both screaming some advice to him; but what it was they said Hiram did not know. The general hullabaloo drowning their cries. The excitement was growing.

But here, through a gap in the front wall, darted another person. It was Orrin Post bringing with him a cape belonging to one of the dancers that he had caught up and which floated behind him like the cape of a matador.