Show harmless necessary sheep sheu F dy by JAMES J MONTAGUE copyright bell syndicate service through the pullman pull man window as the train stood in a prairie station we could see car after slowly moving car and at the side door ol of every one a dozen or more woolly heads thrust forth as far as the gate which confined them in their moving prison would permit the man sitting bitting appo opposite bite me an elderly man with a drooping white mustache and a slouch hat of the tame same hue regarded them lazily then the turning toward me lie broke a silence which had existed since he entered the smoking compartment and inquired hope I 1 dont hurt your fe elins by taking a chew and I 1 replied plied not kot in the least never rode herd on them rep tyles hev ye never I 1 assured him sheep he said Is misunderstood I 1 judge that i larys lamb story done it ma be one sheep can be made a pet of but take en em in the aggregate theys bad I 1 regret that no form of written words will enable me to render the word bad as he pronounced it plumb bad he continued some say bay they aint got sense but they got sense enough to know where they want to go and when they head that way they go too an all the kings horses bosses an all the kings men cant head em cm off like me to tell you yon so methin about what they kin do when they git started 1 I would like nothing better and I 1 sald eaid so GO 11 bout twenty years ago maybe I 1 was for a rancher over in eastern oregon ile he was a wheat rancher but somebody had puss waded him that they was money into sheep an he bought him a band an turned it out on the range while they was there they for the critters to do but eat fust they dumb clumb up on the rim rocks to see eee it if they could spi spy out some means to get loose an give us trouble gettin em back but they see no BO way out so BO they stayed around tiu till a teller feller from portland come alon along an made the old man a offer for em it was a good offer an he took it up they was to be delivered deliver ed on the hoof at portland in a week an I 1 was wag appointed appin ted to go along with em an em an keer tor for em till they was wag receipted for they was a little trouble tem em into the cyars but me an a couple of brakemen managed all right and a day later we was all on a tiding la in portland roe me la in the caboose an the sheep in their side door pullmans when I 1 got off the train a tho the next mornin an inquired around I 1 found out that the feller that was to take em off my hands showed up but that have to be got off the train somehow because the cyars they come in was needed for other work tin an would have to be made up bp in a east bound train right off the rhe railroad man said we could turn em into a stock yard up the kne somewhere Bome where an hed have the yardmaster tend to gettin I 1 the chara there the way the yardmaster tended to it was to shift us on a an forget all about us when I 1 seen where we was an that the stock yard was just about a block away I 1 got the fool idea into nay my head that I 1 could drive em there an told a kid that was waa gaipin at us pd id give him two bits to help me drive lem em down into the street we piled the whole kit an posse of em cm an was just headin em in the right direction when along comes a stray dog an be begins ins to em ein in language they cotton to the ram that was nearest the do dog starts up a side street an of course the whole gang hollered foll ered after him cornin comin to the next street with me bryin to head em off they shied at a street car an swings into a wide avenue an down that they went gettin sc areder an sc scared areder cr as kids aw an cops yelled at em an motormen banged their gongs at ern em and other dogs joined forces with the one that had started em cm off pretty soon so methin shifted them into another street an in their hurry burry to turn the corner they bumped into the door of one of them big chinese stores like they have la in portland for they was rl right ait on morrison street by this time of course the front door had to be open an into the place they loped baale like lambs the chinks 1 in the store got all excited an up canes an chinese umbrellas out of big jars began beatin em but them sheep was not abeln scared of 0 canes ark an umbrellas six or seven fresh dogs had heard the rumpus an come into the place an a tat fat cop was stand ln outside girin orders but doln by an by along cornea comes the chinaman that owned the place an the fust thing he done was to yell in chinese at the elevator man to run his cage upstairs then he opens the doors of the shaft grabs a sheep an throws him down into it an inside of six seconds every critter in the bunch where the fut fust sheep had bad gone an was piled about eighteen deep in the shaft with all the others ble bleating bleat atin ln an to git bit down there too boy it was a mess they was customers perched up on the counters enjoy ln the show they was chinks beilin in their own talk an bavin anything they could grab an they was that river of 0 sheep pourlen like a woolly niagara falls into the elevator shaft loud bass baas comin from the new comers an muffled ones from the ones that got down dawn there fust when all was in the shaft that could get in an the front door was wa slammed on as many of the others as the store Inc including ludin the counters counter hopped up on could hold the main chink comes over to me an says fays now I 1 bochum sheegee she epee how hovi much you yon pay tor for bloke cl china ilna me says L I 1 sheep blone you said the chink you got it all wrong friend I 1 tells him 1 I never seen them sheep he before I 1 got caught in among em an was pulled polled into this here store 1 I started to find a back door but everywhere I 1 went there was some kind of a chinaman an all of 0 em had a mean look in his eye an a knife or some kind of a club in his hand so I 1 stayed an then pretty soon comes a big irish cop an invites me to go eo down an see the chief with him 1 I never knew just how they got that band together to ether an out of the place an aa down don to the city pound but they done 1 it 1 I know for when rd fd telegraphed from the police sta tion to the old man an he answer answered d back he said that the sheep was took care of an I 1 was fired I 1 seen him about five years yeara afterward when he got over his huff an he said it had cost him three hundred dollars an had the nerve to ask me to come back an work it out but when I 1 allowed I 1 was a careless sort of a teller feller an might let a bunch of steers break away on me when I 1 was em to town he be thought better of it sim him an me Is friends now but we aint exactly like damon adv an ry pythias thias |