Of course we wanted to know about the "lost" ranger. It seemed that
there had broken out among the buffalo herd in the Park a strange malady
that was killing them all off. An expert from Washington was en route
to make a study of the ailment, and was due to arrive just before
Christmas. Days passed into weeks and still he didn't show up. Inquiries
to Washington disclosed that he had started as per schedule. Tracing his
journey step by step it was discovered that on the train out of Chicago
he had become ill with flu and had been left in a small town hospital.
There he had died without recovering his speech, and had been buried in
the potter's field!

"Well, then what happened to the buffalo?"

"Washington sent us a German scientist. We loved that nation just about
that time, and on his arrival diplomatic relations were badly strained.
He was too fat and soft to use snowshoes or skis, so we loaded him on a
light truck and started for the buffalo farm. We stalled time and again,
and he sat in lordly indifference while we pushed and shoveled out. We
seemed hopelessly anchored in one drift, and from his perch where he sat
swaddled up like a mummy came his 'Vy don't you carry a portable
telephone so ve couldt hook it over the vires and call for _them_ to
come and pull us oudt?' One of the rangers replied, 'It would be nice
for us to telephone ourselves to please pull us oudt. _We_ are the
_them_ that does the pulling around here.'

"The old boy mumbled and sputtered but rolled out and put a husky
shoulder to the wheel, and we went on our way rejoicing. He won our
respect at the buffalo farm for he soon discovered the germ that was
killing our charges, and he prepared a serum with which we vaccinated