The old bull hearing the sound and seeing his companions
departing concluded he would follow their example. He turned
tail too, and retreated down the mountain side, much to my
relief.
On our walk through Lanesboro we stopped at a plain country
tavern to get lunch. There were several codgers such as in
those days used to haunt country bar-rooms about eleven o'clock
in the morning and four o'clock in the afternoon. Sitting
in an old wooden chair tilted back against the wall of the
room was one of them curled up with his knees sticking up
higher than his head. He looked at Gray's stately proportions
and called out: "How tall are you?" Gray, who was always
rather careful of his dignity, made some brief answer not
intended to encourage familiarity. But the fellow persisted:
"I would like to measure with you." Gray concluded it was
best to enter into the humor of the occasion. So he stood
up against the wall. The other man proceeded to draw himself
up out of the chair, and unroll, and unroll, and unroll until
at last his gigantic stature reached up almost as high as
Gray's.
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