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Show ) MM TALE RARE BUFFALOES. "Mrs. Buffalo," said. Daddy, "was watching the children ' gr'olving up. 'Little son Henry,' she said, 'will soon be a big buffalo. His horns are curved. For such a long time they have been quite straight the way alj my son' horns have been when young. But now it shows Henry is growing tip-he tip-he has beautiful horns which' go off-in . semi-circular curves.'" "What are semi-circular curves?" . asked Nick. "They are curves which only go half round just like half a circle," answered an-swered Daddy. "And so Mrs. Buffalo gazed with fondnts at her son.. "Henry, Mrs. Buffalo's child, was really much older than I think we would guess." "How old was he?" asked Nancy. "About six months old," said Nick. "Maybe a ' year old," suggested Nancy, "if Daddy says he was older than we would imagine when full-grown." full-grown." Daddy laughed and shouted, "Both wrong ! "Now Henry was born one May, seven years before Mrs. Buffalo made this speech. She did not know that he was seven years old. She had not stopped to count the years, but she did know that he was at least a grownup grown-up son because of his horns. "To be sure every spring of the seven years she knew that she and . her family and cousins and relations had all shed their coats and that they had not bothered about new ones until the fall. " 'Come and talk to me,' said Mrs. Buffalo, as she noticed Mrs. Bison not far away." "What kind of an animal was Mrs. Bison, Daddy?" asked the children. "Mrs. Bison belonged to the same family of animals as Mrs. Buffalo. Sometimes one is called a buffalo, then I " " ft.W"i v 3 "I Am Feeling Rare," Said Mrs. Bison. it is also called a bison. It is like having two names that mean just about the same thing. "But tills buffalo had always been called Mrs. Bison, and when Mrs. Buffalo Buf-falo called her she went right over. " 'Good morning,' she said politely. " 'Good morning,' said Mrs. Buffalo. " 'How are you feeling?' asked Mrs. Bison. "Well, and how are you feeling?" " 'I am feeling rare.' said Mrs. Bison. " 'What in the world does that mean?' asked Mrs. Buffalo. " it means the way I am feeling of course,' answered Mrs. Bison. " 'If that's the way you feel I am sure I don't understand. Are you ill at all?' " 'No. not at all,' said Mrs. Bison. " 'Then whatever do you mean?' asked Mrs. Buffalo, who was becoming more puzzled every moment. " 'I heard some people from a long distance off shout to each other, anil this is what they said when they looked at me : "Do you see that buffalo buf-falo over there?" " 'Then some one else said, "Yres." " 'And after a little lit I heard a third person say, "The buffalo is getting get-ting to be very rare these days." So, you see, I am right. I am rare very rare.' " 'Then I must be feeling rare too,' said Mrs. Buffalo. 'Your name is Eison though you are the same as I am, and so I am every bit as rare as you are.' "'I suppose that is true,' said Mrs. Bison. 'But you must give me tha credit for having heard that we are rare. If I hadn't, we might never have known It.' " 'No, we probably never would have known it,' said Mrs. Buffalo. " 'It must mean that we are gentle and nice, even if we are stubborn and always insist upon having our own way. Of course now and again the bulls get very angry, but we don't. And perhaps it means that we are so very large.' " 'No,' said Mrs. Bison, 'I'm sure from the way they were talking it didn't mean anything usual like that. It must have meant that we were considered con-sidered very wonderful.' " 'Perhaps,' said Mrs. Buffalo, 'but it Is nice to be feeling that way.' For even though they did not know that rare meant something unusual au" scar -", tl'y liked the new word." |