34 



They have a comfortable open shed to go into if 

 they like. My cowman told me the other day that 

 not one of them has ever gone into it the whole 

 winter. It has been a remarkably wet, stormy 

 winter, and the thermometer has some nights been 

 at sixteen degrees below freezing point. The Plague 

 has been all round me. The way I do is this. I 

 go and spend half an hour in the sheds of some 

 farmer whose beasts are dying all round me. Then 

 I come home, and immediately visit my cows in the 

 field. They are very tame ; so I first look which 

 way the wind is blowing, and then I go to the wind- 

 ward side of one of the cows, so that none of the 

 emanations may be lost, and stroke its head for a 

 considerable period. I have not succeeded hitherto 

 in imparting the disease, and I am sadly afraid rny 

 endeavours to do so would only lead to disappoint- 

 ment, however long I might continue them, or how- 

 ever often I might repeat them. Now I know 

 perfectly well what Messrs. Gamgee and Co. would 

 say here, for they have said it before in similar 

 cases. They would say, u The cows are Alderney 

 cows, and therefore all this proves nothing." It is 

 like the elder Mr. Weller, when his son consults 

 him how he should end his valentine. " I could 

 end with a werse," he says, a what do you think ?" 



" I don't like it, Sam," answered Mr. Weller. " I 

 never know'd a respectable coachman as wrote 

 poetry 'cept one, and he was only a Cambervell 

 man, so that proves nothin." 



