and circumference. A number of holes had been bored in the long horn, which I had overlooked until now. The ox must have been a subject to a disease, known as the hollow horn. He was also badly knee sprung.
I don’t want you to think that he was a small animal, he was far from that as he weighed around eleven hundred pounds, poor as he was. His color was of an orange shade that had seen considerable of the sun and atmosphere. When he stood up, he resembled two clothes horses with a huge blanket for a covering. Across the rump, he measured one and one half axe handles and was so swaybacked that when he traveled over soft ground, his belly dragged on the earth, leaving a trail as if a heavy sack had been drawn along his trail.
Well, with the help of some farmers, I finally reached what I called my home, the six acre tract, and I turned the ox out in the lot, little dreaming what was to come next. The first night after the arrival of the beast, it rained hard. I got up in the middle of the night and went out to see how my ox was getting along. Stumbling along in the dark, I
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made out the object of
my quest, and groping in the dark, my hand plunged into water as I felt along the form of my ox. I suddenly realized what was wrong with my new animal and I wondered why I had not thought of it before. I certainly had been dumb. I hastened to the house and grabbed up a pail. I returned to the ox just in time and began madly to bail him out to keep him from drowning. Do you realize, that he was so hollow backed that it formed a small reservoir or tank. This affliction interfered with my other duties during rainy weather.
I am nearing the end and the end was my greatest trouble. How I have cursed the man or men who cut off the tail of my ox, when the animal was a calf. What vandals there are in this world. A more fiendish act could not have been done. The calf’s tail was cut off so close to his rump that it left him no protection and when the rays of the sun shone brightly, it caused the beast to have sour stomach. Added to the difficulty of bailing him out when it rained, my hands were full just caring for him. Instead of being an asset, he was a liability of the worst kind.
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