Tall Tales of Johnny Mudd
Chapter 4b: 4B: Where the Lady Buffalos Roam, Part II
The horse cart was sinking more and more into the mud. “I don’t even have enough rope to pull it out,” he said to himself. He started to think. First he looked at the mud and then he looked at the cart and then at the skins. “I’ve got a great idea! he exclaimed. “I have some extra skins. I’m thinking that I can cut some skins and weave them into a belt. Then I will be able to tie it to the horses and to the wagon. In that way I can pull it out of the mud.”
Ole Johnny Mudd worked for a long time cutting the skins. It was difficult, being that they were still fresh. It was already getting late. The lady buffalos had gone to the mercantile store and they had made themselves cool summer outfits. They starting looking at Ole Johnny Mudd from far off. They saw that he was still weaving a skin belt. They looked at one another and shook their heads. Softly they said: “Ah, the things that a man will do for love of a woman!”
Finally Ole Johnny Mudd finished weaving a buffalo-skin belt. He tied one end of the belt to his horses and the other end onto his horse wagon. “Giddyap, horses!” he yelled to them. Soon the horses started pulling and pulling. They were pulling away from Ole Johnny Mudd.
“My horse cart should have come out of the mud by now,” he said to himself. When he turned around to look though, he saw that the horse wagon hadn’t moved a single inch. The belt was so fresh that it had stretched more and more. It wasn’t good for anything!
Poor Ole Johnny Mud! He had worked for a long time and all for nothing. The skins had stretched and stretched, but the cart was still stuck in the mud. “What shall I do now?” Ole Johnny Mud asked himself. The day got really hot. When he found that he couldn’t do anything else, poor Ole Johnny Mud took his head in both his hands and he started to cry. “Now how shall I take the buffalo skins to Ole Panchita?” he sobbed. “She would look so beautiful in a new lady buffalo robe and I love her so much.”
Ole Johnny Mudd cried until be fell asleep. The horses were tired of waiting and they fell asleep also. The day grew hotter and hotter. Ole Johnny Mudd didn’t feel anything. A big bird swooped down and stood near Ole Johnny Mudd and poked at his head. He didn’t see a thing; he only slept in the warm sunshine.
As the sun was shining hotter and hotter, something curious was happening. The belt that Ole Johnny Mudd had woven out of buffalo skins, began to dry out. The more the leather belt dried up, the shorter it got. It shrank so much that it pulled the horse wagon slowly but surely out of the mud. “Wake up!” the bird call to Ole Johnny Mudd, but he just kept on sleeping. The horse cart started coming out of the mud inch by inch all by itself.
When the buffalo skin belt had dried out, it shrank until it could shrink no more. The horse cart had come out of the mud by itself. The horses stood by waiting around until Ole Johnny Mudd woke up so that they could continue on their way. The bird began to sing out: “Wake up! Your horse wagon is ready!” Ole Johnny Mudd stretched in the sunshine.
“My goodness!” he exclaimed. “The horse cart is all out of the mud!” It could be that I pulled the horse cart out of the mud by myself in my sleep. His horses only looked at each other and winked because they knew the truth. “Well then giddyap!” he said to his horses, as he climbed on the wagon.
Ole Johnny Mudd travelled all day long. He was so anxious to get to the village. Just as the sun was setting, he got to the edge of town. He could see Ole Panchita LaPingüis waiting for him on the roof of the saloon. She waved at him as she called out: “Yoo-hoo! Johnny! Here I am!” she yelled. Ole Johnny Mudd waved at her also and he smiled. She was going to be very happy with her new lady buffalo skin robe.