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Show S5 BENNY'S COW CORNER By Eunice Thome: IF you ever saw Mama look at Benny you might know why she wanted a cow so bad. Benny was our second brother, ' twelve years old, . and he looked like he might have been cut out of a scarecrow I 1 pattern. Mama SMI-,.. blamed it on not M.nii having mflk. Fiction But Daddy was I always getting mad because Benny was afraid or wouldn't fight like the other boys. He said you couldn't blame it on milk. Then Mama's face got sort of tight and she said Benny needed it more than the others. So, at last we got a cow. Uncle Hal brought her home in his truck. Uncle Hal maneuvered his bay window from under the steering wheel and waddled to the back of the truck. Daddy stalked around from the other side. Next to Uncle Hal he looked nearly as underfed as Benny. "We gotta be careful," Daddy said. "She ain't taking to us strangers too well." "She looks crazy in her eyes." Uncle Hal poked a finger through a crack and the cow let out a low bellow. "She's scared silly. No telling tell-ing what she'll do when we turn her loose. Might as well find out, though." He let down the tail gate and untied un-tied the rope from her horns. "You young'uns get out of the lot!" Daddy yelled at us. "She's upset enough to try to fight." She came out snorting and pawing and went over the fence to the peanut pea-nut patch just like it hadn't been there. Uncle Hal climbed the fence with considerable speed, consider- Despite his bulk, Uncle Hal ran. Be plowed a path straight to the back field fence. ing' his blubber, and took off to drive her back. Daddy ran to head her off the other way. They circled around her, intending to drive her back to the lot. But she was too upset up-set and scared. She lowered her head and pointed her long sharp horns straight toward Uncle HaL Despite his bulk, Unele Hal ran. With his head back and his elbows punishing the spare tire around his middle, he plowed a path straight to the back field fence. He beat the cow there by several yards, but he didn't bother to climb. He fell over, leaving a good sized patch of his overalls on the barb wire. Old Bessie turned her attention to Daddy. He made it to the fence and grabbed a post and swung for safety just as Bessie's horns tangled in the wire below him. rpHE COW was tangled in the wire and bucking. Uncle Hal was peeping from behind a nearby oak. The rest of us were atop fence posts. Daddy was mad enough to shoot Bessie then and there, but she was a summer's profit. He couldn't afford af-ford to harm her or let her hurt herself. He hollered for Mama to send the wire pliers. Before she could speak to one of the other boys Benny was half way to the house. And he took the pliers to Daddy. "Watch that cow!" Daddy yelled at him. "She could make hash of you in no time!" Benny went on. The cow had calmed down some and he got pretty close to her. "Git Back!" Uuncle Hal yelled. "When a cow is that crazy" "She ain't skeered o' me, Daddy!" Benny reached out a hand and caressed ca-ressed the cow's quivering side. You could see her relaxing. He rubbed her back a minute and worked up to her shoulders. The restless hoof quit pawing and she stood there trembling while Benny tied a rope around her horns. Daddy started to cut the wire and she reared up again. So he went and leaned on Uncle Hal's oak and tossed the pliers back to Benny. "All right, son. Cut her loose. She's all yours." Benny roped her by himself and led her into the lot. "Sure. Now can you stop thinking of your son as a coward and admit ad-mit he has ah " Mama stopped and started turning pink. She was always mighty careful of what she said. Daddy laughed at her. "Okay Suzie. We'll call it intestinal W tude." |