SOME INSTANCES OF PRESENCE OF MIND.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1700, 2 June 1884, Page 2

SOME INSTANCES OF PRESENCE OF MIND.

Some years ago a poor woman near Moffat, when carrying home some " meal-pocks," had occasion to cross a fieldin which there was a .wild bull, Suddenly the bull made its appearance. The woman ran for tho'dyke r the bull after her. The dyke was a good way off, and the bull was making up fast. Suddenly ahe tripped and fell. The monsfer was close upon her. Quick as lightening the woman tore' open i one of the "pocks" and threw ; a'handful of meal in the brute's eyes just as he was lowering his horns to toss lie'K "ITIIO bull wa3 blinded for the'time, plunged madly about unable to see her.>The wo;nan pioked up her« meal-pocks" and ran just as a gamekeeper made his appearance coming to her rescue. . A lady was sitting on a lawn with her children, when a mad dog appeared running towards them, pursued'by some peasants. Without presence of mind the lady would have shrieked and fled, or else flung herself upon the dog, and in seeking to save her children sacrificed herself Her presence of mind, how. over, instantly suggested tho best thing to be done. She sprang' .to her feet, ran forward to meet the rabid bvnte, received its head in her thick stuff gown between her knees, and,' muffling it up, held it. with all her might till the men came up... Another case, in which a man had steadiness of mind to do in a sudden emergency just what people considering ft calmly afterwards would say was wisest, occurred at a farm near Exeter. The farmer, observing a swarm of bees, tried to attract them by waying a leafy branch he had torn from a.bush. They came, but instead of pitching on it, they suddenly began to pitch on thu' man's head, face, neck, and hande. Instead of yielding to the impulse there must have been to wildly plunge about and try to get the' swarm off-an effort which would have resulted in his being stung to death-the man, the moment he saw they were settling on himself, cried to his friends to bring a hive, and then stood perfectly still, though the bees were, soon'swarming all oyer his neck and hands, 'Ahivo was brought and held In position: 1 the bees swarmed away into it, and'the man escaped without a singlo sting.