192 THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 







&quot; Don t you think horn-ail hurts the milk ? &quot; inquired 

 Seth hesitatingly, as he relighted his pipe. 



&quot; Wall, as to that, I can t say. It s all the keow we ve 

 got, as gives rnilk, and I shouldn t think any trouble in the 

 horns would strike clean threw the beast. Milk is milk, 

 I take it, no matter where it comes from. I never could 

 see any difference in the taste.&quot; 



&quot; I rather guess milk wont be milk out of that animal 

 much longer,&quot; said Seth ominously, and blowing a puff 

 of smoke as blue as his prophecy. 



&quot; You don t think she s going to die, do you ? &quot; asked 

 Jake solemnly. 



&quot; The crows have already held a counsel on that animal. 

 Tucker told me so last night.&quot; 



&quot; The scoundrel ! He told me he would warrant her to 

 get well, if I d give him a dollar for his doctoring.&quot; 



Two days after the above conversation I was called in 

 to administer upon the carcass of said animal. Jake said 

 he had human feelings, and he could not skin a cow he 

 had milked, and he did not even want to put her in a 

 muck heap. I gave my neighbor due credit for the feel 

 ings of tenderness which the death of his cow seemed to 

 call forth. But I could not help thinking that a little 

 more of that tenderness manifested to the animal while 

 living would have been much more wisely bestowed. 



To tell the plain truth, the animal died of starvation, 

 just as many cows die every year in this land of steady 

 habits and Christian civilization. I noticed the cow last 

 summer, and told Jake he would certainly lose her if he 

 did not give her a better pasture. But he would keep 

 her with his young cattle in the old cow-pasture that has 

 been grazed to my certain knowledge for fifty years, and 

 probably for a hundred, without plowing or manuring 

 except the droppings of the pastured animals, and these 

 were yarded at night. He kept six animals where there 

 was not grass enough for three. They came out of the 



