Seeing no prospect of escape by leaping stile or hedge, he hopped the
green turf like an encaged lark, and happily reached a pollard in the
midst of the meadow.

Climbing up with the agility of a squirrel, he seated himself on the
knobby summit of the stunted willow.

Still retaining his Zimmerman and his senses, he looked down and beheld
the corniferous quadruped gamboling playfully round his singular asylum.

"Very pleasant!" exclaimed he; "I suppose, old fellow you want to have a
game at toss!--if so, try it on with your equals, for you must see, if
you have any gumption, that Watty Williams is above you. Aye, you may
roar!--but if I sit here till Aurora appears in the east, you won't catch
me winking. What a pity it is you cannot reflect as well as ruminate;
you would spare yourself a great deal of trouble, and me a little fright
and inconvenience."

The animal disdainfully tossed his head, and ran at the tree--and

"Away flew the light bark!"

in splinters, but the trunk remained unmoved.

"Shoo! shoo!" cried Watty, contemptuously; but he found that shoo'ing
horns was useless; the beast still butted furiously against the harmless
pollard.

"Hallo!" cried he to a dirty boy peeping at a distance--"Hallo!" but the
lad only looked round, and vanished in an instant.