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Show LIVING IN THE COUNTRY. rhe PleMurei of Keeping m Horw sn4 Cow in the Dooryard. "Ill tell you," said the doctor, "we'll buy a cow and make our -own butter! And we'll fence in the adjoining lot and keep a pony for the children! What's the use of living in the country if you don't keep a cow or a horse?" .1 ' ' To this outburst there came no answer save a maniac smile, for the doctor's only audience was a feeble' minded woman, wo-man, whom sad experience in suburban life had bereft of hope. Perhaps she remembered the slow alienation of neighborly affection brought about by marauding fowls, and also those lurid months during which a blithe Newfoundland pup bad devastated the land, but if so she made no sign. A long experience with men had taught this gentle being that the only way to get the best of men and hens is to appear to give them their own way in the start, so she smiled a slow, weird smile and consented to the insertion of an advertisement adver-tisement in the county paper for a superior su-perior cow and a tractablo pony. Scarcely a week had flitted by when ono day there walked into the back yard a Btrango cavalcade. . First came a dejected de-jected dwarf of a steed, whose head had evidently been designed for a Normandy draught horse, but whose logs had been sawed of! short in a dream. His bust measure was all right, but he presented the general appearance of au oak that had started with the best of intentions from an acorn, but had suddenly changed its mind and decided to become a head of lettuce. There was a masterful look in his eye that bespoke decision and force, and the way his fore shortened members touched the ground was indicative indic-ative of business. Behind the horse, came a wrecked cow. I put it mildly when I say a wrecked cow, for she had no horns, no tail and scarcely any hair. She had bones, however, and they showed show-ed and seemed to creak in the morning air like a week's washing frozen on the line. Back of the horse and cow strode a gigantic boy. He was evidently young, for he wore knickerbockers, but he was very large and powerful. 1 60on discovered discov-ered he was a Swede, and neither spoke nor understood the language of the land of his adoption. He seemed resolved to leave the horse and cow. In vain I gesticulated, danced, expostulated. Sadly, Sad-ly, yet resolutely, he cast off the leading strings from the two beasts and turned them loose in my dooryard. I followed him to the corner, and if I had had a shotgun I should probably have stained my innocent soul with boyslaughter, but he paid no attention to me and retraced his steps to the unknown country from whence he and his living menagerie had come. I went home in tears and found the horse had regained his spirits and was chasing the cow around the yard. . When he got tired of that he began to kick at the hired girl, who had gone out to the rescue of the cow, frightening the poor girl so badly that she fell in a fit upon the door sill, over which I dragged her at the risk of my own life. After a time the horse wearied of his surroundings and started off at a tearing run down street, leaping a five barred gate as easily as a wind blown feather skiins the air. Where he went I know not, for my eyes have never rested upon him since he disappeared in the direction direc-tion of the lake bluff, but I am told that after a night's wandering he was taken up and returned to his owner. Turning from the window where I had stood spellbound with delight to see the gentle beast vault through the crowd of helpless school children on their way to school, I turned my attention to the hired girl and the cow. They both seemed delirious. The former . moaned something about taking the first train to town, and the latter was rubbing herself against the side of the house in a way that made the windows rattle. I went out and gave the poor thing a basin of water, which she absorbed with one loud inhalation and seemed anxious for more. The better part of tho morning was spent in humanitarian service. I do not think the poor animal had fasted food since the preceding June. When the doctor came home at night he found the hired girl gone forever and the cow asleep on the garden walk like an emaciated emaci-ated watchdog on guard. "Who brought that rack of bones here?" he asked. ' : : I wanted to say who I thought had a direct hand in it, but the children stood around too near, so I contented myself with a few gentle words, descriptive of-the of-the boy, the goblin pony and the cow. Next morning the large and muscular boy came back and evidently wanted money. The doctor gave him the cow, and chased him up street with a hatchet, but that did not bring back the hired girl ncr restore the lightness of heart of which such experiences are likely to rob an emotional nature. Chicago Herald. |