“How can you?” asked Dido, the dancing bear.
“With my big, hard head I can ram that fence and break the board as easily as anything,” the mighty buffalo answered. “I am not afraid of hurting my shoulder now. Stand still, White Tail, and I’ll get you loose.”
White Tail, the deer, stood still, his head held down where his horn was caught in a crack in the fence. Shaggo backed off a little way, and then, with his head lowered, he ran across the yard. Taking care not to bump into White Tail, [Shaggo hit the fence with all his might.]
There was a crash, a splintering of wood, and the deer was set free. He shook his head, and said:
“Thank you, Shaggo! You are, indeed, a mighty buffalo.”
“Oh, that was nothing,” said Shaggo. “I could have broken a much thicker board than that, now my shoulder is well.”
The keepers came running up at the sound of the crash, and when they saw what Shaggo had done to help the deer they were very glad. The fence was mended, and fixed so no more animals would be caught in it.
“It is a good thing to have a big head,” said Dido to Shaggo, when they went to sleep in their cages that night.
And so, for many years Shaggo, the mighty buffalo, lived in the zoo, and hundreds of boys and girls came to look at him and admire him. Sometimes he wished he might go back to the prairies, and see his old friends, and watch Rumpo and Bumpo knock each other in somersaults.
“But it is very nice, here in the zoo,” said Shaggo. “And, who knows? perhaps some day I may join the circus again and travel out West. Then I would have some wonderful adventures to tell the rest of the buffaloes.”