CHAPTER V.

AN IRISH BULL.

OUR homeward road-if road it could be called, that was in parts little else than the dry bed of the winter torrent, encumbered with stones, and now and then intersected by bogs of doubtful tenacitylay for a considerable distance along the bank of the river.

A wilder or more varied scene of beauty it would be difficult to imagine: the green banks, with scarlet rowan, black alders, and stunted hazels reflected in the dark water, heaps of turf, piled for winter use, chequering the wide expanse of bog, and the distant mountains, now tinged by the setting sun, sloping gracefully to the sea in the dim distance, formed together a scene of rare beauty, such as men spend much time and money to witness in a foreign land, whilst they neglect the beauties spread so lavishly within easy reach of their homes.

The walk was a very pleasant one, Honor's bright face beaming down upon me, as I walked by the side of her shaggy pony. After a time the

road divided, a new and more direct one having been cut by Mr. Blake through some young plantations of larch and fir he had lately made. This was not, however, at present passable by a pony, there being, as Larry expressed it, a "bad step or two," so we agreed to walk, sending that discreet attendant, with the pony, round by the river bank.

We had not proceeded more than half a mile when Honor stopped, and listening, said,

"I do believe that wicked bull is loose again."

A sharp note, which I should never have attributed to its proper origin, at once struck my ear. It was more like the early effort of a newly made "M. F. H.” to sound his horn than the deep bellowing roar I had always attributed to the bull.

The next moment, from behind the fir-planted bank a hundred yards or so ahead, issued two or three cows; the monarch of the herd, a tawny brute of the West Highland breed, following in the rear, evidently in an excited state. He walked, as it were, on his toes, lashing his tail, and, as he looked from side to side with a sort of "wha' daur meddle wi' me" air, uttered at short intervals the sharp menacing note that had alarmed my companion.

There was indeed cause for apprehension, in the event of the animal proving mischievous. The road

was narrow, and though open on one side, where the land had been drained and planted, a broad and deep ditch divided us from it; on the other was a wet bog, practically impassable, and more than usually treacherous from the late rains. Το turn back would have been to provoke pursuit, so we held on our way, Miss O'Hara perhaps affecting a confidence she did not feel, assuring me there was no danger, if we showed no fear. Showing it or not, I for one could not but feel afraid, and, had I been alone, should have fled incontinently. If I had, this little tale would never have been written; but to do myself justice, the thought of deserting my fair companion never entered into my head.

Meanwhile, the cows seemed more bellicose than the bull, trotting towards us with lowering heads and tails twisted high in air. They stopped when within twenty yards, and then turning suddenly galloped off, forming in good order in the rear of the bull, and by their hoarse lowing apparently encouraging him to go in and attack us. If such was the meaning of their hideous mutterings (to my thinking there is no noise in nature so disagreeable as that made by "the lowing herd"), the bull at once acquiesced. Tossing fragments of the rotten bank alternately to the right and left as he advanced, he rapidly accelerated his pace, until, as

he came within ten yards, he was plunging along at full gallop.

I have heard that a bull, when running at a person, shuts his eyes; this may be so in general, but the vicious brute in question did not give us even that poor chance; I could plainly see his red eyes as he advanced, wide open, and fixed on mine. It was a moment of absolute horror, and I fully believed it to be my last; but for Honor, I think I should have fallen down, and allowed myself to be gored, or tossed, or trampled on, as fate and the bull's idiosyncrasy might determine; but that young lady, bred in habits of self-confidence and self-protection, never for a moment lost her presence of mind, otherwise we had been inevitably lost, for in truth there was not a moment for aught but action. Taking my hand firmly in her own, she turned me towards the wet bog, and crying,

"Jump, Charlie; jump for your life; jump on to the rushes-now!"

She sprang from the pathway, twelve feet at least at a bound, and scarcely touching the patch of rushes indicated, leaped from them on to a rough balk of timber, which, black and scorched,* lay a

* Under the surface of the bog, at depths varying from three to thirty feet, are found the remains of two distinct forests, fallen and submerged at different and probably widely removed dates, but both of great antiquity. The one which furnishes the bog oak, so much used for ornament, is generally in the lowest stratum, and

few inches above the treacherous bog a yard or two further on, and which afforded a firm though slippery footing. Here she perched, like a bird on a bough ; and as she steadied me with her hand, the bull with a mighty splash that covered me all over with black mud, in a vain attempt to follow, sank helplessly in the bog, his tawny body quite covered, and only his head and the ridge of his back visible. I never saw such a change in the appearance of an animal in my life; the lurid fire in his eye was quenched as completely as that in a red-hot cinder would have been under similar circumstances; he looked terrified, cowed, almost pitiable; but there was no time for moralizing. Quick as light, Miss O'Hara placed her foot on the burly broad back of the bull, and springing from it, landed with me at her side safely on terra firma.

"Thank heaven, Charlie, we are out of that!" she said; "that's a bad bull, and if you had not jumped so well-"

"I jumped, dearest Honor?"

"Well, never mind, Charlie, we both jumped, and it will be long before our friend there will jump out, unless some one help him. And-look at those

appears, from its frequently charred appearance, and the absence of trunks, to have been destroyed by fire; the other, which furnishes the pine torches that burn so brightly, is of pine and fir, and has evidently succumbed before the wasting effects of water.