"THE LOWING HERD" 93 



incidents. Are we justified in lacerating the feelings 

 of those creatures, which have become accustomed to 

 our ways, which submit to our arbitrary authority 

 with wondrous patience, which depend on us in many 

 ways, and which trust us with unquestioning fidelity ? 

 Against all precedent, the dairy herd was started 

 with a bull. Though such a beginning is not to be 

 recommended as a general precept, it must be confessed 

 that in this particular instance developments proved 

 its wisdom. Unjust fears were overcome while yet 

 he was undistracted by society of his kind. Having 

 no other company, he sought ours in frank and friendly 

 manner. Occasionally he would accompany me on 

 indefinite excursions in the bush, and would oft tempt 

 me to play. With the fable of the frogs and the boys 

 in mind, I had to decline participation in his sportful 

 moods, for what would have proved pure frolic to him 

 might have been fraught with disaster to me. At 

 this period of the dairy herd, he spent most of his leisure 

 moments in the paddock where poultry congregates, 

 and where many of the domestic rites are performed. 

 He was at home, and he was a gentleman, and did no 

 one premeditated ill. Longing for something to play 

 with, he would make hostile demonstration against 

 the wheelbarrow, but that dull-hearted vehicle never 

 responded except by ignominious collapse at tenderest 

 touch of horn. One evening, when all the good little 

 chicks had been put to bed for the night, the bull, 

 impatient for play, overturned two coops so suddenly 

 that two of the inmates were crushed flat. There 

 was no sheltering mother to protest against such viola- 

 tion, and so the adjoining coop was visited. But for 

 once he went wrong in strategy. The coop contained 

 an exceptionally numerous family, the mother of which 

 richly deserved the name of "Scotty." The coop was 



