This incident suggested an idea to Joe’s but too fertile brain in an instant. The spirit of mischief invigorated by a long repose, and with difficulty suppressed, rose in arms. That night he made shoes for the ram’s feet, with sharp calks, and nails to put them on with. Mr. Smullen was very methodical in his habits, and Joe was well acquainted with them.
It was his custom, before turning the cattle out in the forenoon, to put a little salt hay in the yard for the sheep, then carry out the corn for the hens, and bring in the eggs in the same measure; and he never varied a hair’s breadth.
After Bobby had gone to school, Joe went into the sheep-house, nailed the shoes on the ram, and after plaguing and irritating him till he was thoroughly mad, hid himself behind the log fence, in the sun, to see what would come of it.
The ram did not offer to molest the old gentleman while he was bringing out the hay. Soon afterwards he came out with a wooden bowl full of corn, going to the barn, when the ram started for him.
“You won’t catch me this time, you pesky sarpint you,” said the old gentleman, quickening his pace for the ice, and soon reached what he supposed his harbor of safety. The brute had found out he was shod, and running backward half the length of the yard to obtain momentum, rushed forward and struck the old gentleman in the rear with the force of a battering-ram. Away went the corn in all directions over the yard, to the manifest delight of the hungry sheep. Uncle Smullen lay prostrate on the ice: one half the wooden bowl flew over the fence, the other into the water trough, while the ram, who had exerted his utmost strength in a dead rush, not meeting with the resistance upon which he had calculated, turning a summerset upon the body of his antagonist, went end over end. Before he could pick himself up, he was seized by Joseph, and flung into the barn.
Uncle Jonathan and the Ram. Page 282.
The moment Joe saw Uncle Smullen fall, his better nature awoke: hastening to his aid, he inquired,—
“Are you much hurt, Uncle Jonathan?”