[Illustration: THE BULL CALF AND OTHER TALES, BY A.B. FROST. CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS NEW YORK. ] [Illustration: COPYRIGHT 1892 BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS NEW YORK. ] [Illustration: CONTENTS] PAGE _1._ _The Humane Man and the Bull Calf_ _5_ _2._ _A Warning to Mutton that Thinks Itself Lamb_ _19_ _3._ _Antonio and Jeremiah; an Inharmonious Tale_ _29_ _4._ _Dizzy Joe_ _37_ _5._ _Violet's Experience_ _55_ _6._ _The Entire Discomfiture of Uneasy Walker_ _63_ _7._ _'Twas a Poem about Gentle Spring_ _73_ _8._ _The Kidnapping of Private Jean François: A Frontier_ _Episode of the Next War_ _87_ _9._ _A Low Down Trick; or, Louisa's Capitulation_ _101_ _10._ _A Tale of Two Tails_ _109_ [Illustration: _The Humane Man and the Bull Calf._] [Illustration] [Illustration: "Make veal of that pretty creature! 'Tis a shame!" says the Humane Man. "I will buy him and take him home to the children."] [Illustration: "Ef Oi was you, Oi wud niver toi that rope around me waist," says the former proprietor of the calf. "Oh, never fear; he is a gentle thing," says the Humane Man.] [Illustration: The "gentle thing" develops a tendency to play rather startling to the Humane Man.] [Illustration: And takes him for a little dash down a stony hill,] [Illustration: But is stopped at the bottom by a small dog.] [Illustration: "Be still, little calfy, till I untie this cord--that's a good little calfy," says the Humane Man.] [Illustration: Renewal of hostilities by the dog, and a circus performance by the Humane Man and his purchase.] [Illustration: Sudden termination to the circus performance owing to the want of more rope. "You micro-cephalous idiot," says the Humane Man, "if I had a knife I'd----"] [Illustration: ----but the sentence is never finished, for again the dog interferes and the Humane Man is unfurled.] [Illustration: The "pretty creature" becomes really alarmed and goes through a break in the fence leaving the Humane Man in a serious position.] [Illustration: Rescue of the Humane Man by natives--mutual astonishment.] [Illustration: "Boys," says the Humane Man, "you may have that calf--he is yours on condition that he is made at once into _veal_--_minced veal!!_"] [Illustration: An adventure that befel Maria and Tobias. A warning to Mutton that thinks itself Lamb.] [Illustration] [Illustration: "Look at that hill, Maria; when we was children how we did roll down hills like that. Wouldn't it be fun now?" "Lor'! Toby! we're too old and fat fer the likes of that." "Fat nothin'! come on, let's do it?" "Well, you go ahead, I'll foller."]