io6 My Little Farm 



mistaking mere altitude for size, weight and real 

 value. You cannot get them to see this difference 

 in the young calf, and yet they have invariably to 

 admit it later, when they are trying to sell legs 

 and I am selling bullocks. They buy daylight at 

 the price of beef, and then wonder why my calvet 

 thrive better than theirs on less milk and at less cost. 

 After long experience, I am convinced that a 

 shilling made in the straight way gives a Con- 

 naughtman less delight than a penny secured 

 by Connaught methods, and yet the excessive 

 cleverness assailing my simplicity often works out 

 to my advantage in the end, even without the 

 least effort on my part. One day last spring I went 

 to a fair for calves. It was noon, and the best 

 remained unsold. I said I wanted males as I 

 went through, bidding for everyone that suited 

 me. The heifers were about ten shillings a head 

 dearer, and the difference could not disappear 

 before the age of twelve months. Of course, I 

 should prefer the females, at the same price. I 

 met an excessively clever man, selling an unusually 

 good calf a female, but I did not know this. 

 " Cum here, sor," he said ; " I have the noicest 

 little bull calf in the fair." At 25 per cent, less 

 than it was worth as a male, and about 40 per cent, 

 cent, less than its value as a female, I bought the 

 calf, and the excessively clever man was evidently 

 pleased, but in a great hurry to get paid. I paid 

 him quickly, and as quickly he vanished, no doubt 

 to tell his friends of the " flat " he had caught and 

 the clever thing he had done. Only next day, at 

 home, I found out in full how he had imposed on 



