Like a Rock

A Texan was telling a crowd of Easterners about the viciousness of the wild steers on the range. “I was walking along close to a mesquite thicket the other day,” said the Texan, “when one of these critters crashed out and came for me. I ran for the closest tree. The lowest branch on it was twenty feet up. There was nothing to do but to jump for it.” There the Texan paused and reached for his tobacco and started rolling a cigarette. The tense silence was broken by an anxious voice. “Did you catch it?” someone asked. The Texan drawled, “No, I missed it going up, but I caught it coming down.”