72 My Little Farm 



ceased to steal cows from each other. The 

 practice has become almost unpopular. The 

 social feeling sets in so strongly against it that we 

 may hope to see cattle stealing some day denounced 

 on moral grounds as well, because the moral 

 standard follows the social when convenient. 

 This is often the case wherever human nature 

 stands higher than its code of morals. Men find 

 out for themselves that crime is but folly in the 

 long run, and the professional moralist rises to the 

 level of the discovery. Meantime, there is no 

 social or moral prejudice against stealing the cow's 

 food, which, cleverly done, may even advance the 

 popularity of the thief. Let a man steal the cow, 

 and we will not be seen in his company ; but let 

 him starve the cow to steal the food, doubling the 

 crime, and we will go arm in arm to Mass with 

 him. I am not competent to quote theological 

 authority for the subtle distinction, but I can keep 

 the cow in the field and the food locked up. It is 

 so much simpler than striving to trace the deriva- 

 tion of a morality which makes it wrong to steal 

 one thing and right to steal another. Before I 

 returned to Ireland, I had always assumed that it 

 was wrong to steal anything. 



The next great reason for the cow is that she 

 is the best tenant we can keep on the soil to make 

 human beings unnecessary. For half the year in 

 some cases, and for the whole year in many cases, 

 she takes care of herself, requiring the minimum 

 of labour and enabling us to ship our fellow 

 countrymen out of Ireland, which is the ideal and 



