“Humph! That’s the first time I ever knew anybody could have a good time alone, unless he was eating or rolling in the mud,” said Poko in a low voice to Soako.
“That’s right,” agreed the other. “Shaggo’s getting more and more queer.”
And if these two buffalo friends could have known what Shaggo had made up his mind to do—that is, run away—they would have been more surprised than ever.
Once Shaggo had found out what made him discontented—that the Park was not big enough for him—he began to look about for a way of getting out of it. For several days he wandered around with the rest of the herd, eating the grass here and there, drinking from the different springs, going to the shade of the trees when the sun was too hot, or rolling in the mud when the flies bit too hard.
And, all this while, [Shaggo was looking for a hole in the fence]. But he found none, and he was beginning to be discouraged.
“I wonder if I’ll get out?” he said to himself.
One day Shaggo separated himself from the rest of the herd. He could do this easily, as, of late, he had not been very friendly, and the others had come to let him alone.
“Shaggo is a bit cross and grouchy,” said Wuffo. “Just let him alone until that spell wears off. Then he’ll be his same jolly old self again.”
So when Shaggo wandered off alone, no one paid any attention to him. Shaggo went up on top of a hill. From there he looked down and saw the shiny wire fence that kept him from leaving the preserve.