THE RED COW 



sun themselves for a while before driving them back 

 to their stalls. I half remembered that the gate to 

 the young orchard had been opened when the snow 

 was deep and left opened, but I did not give it a 

 thought. The government drain had been flooded 

 and was covered with slippery ice that I was sure 

 they could not cross, and I felt that everything was 

 serene for a pleasant sunbath for the cows. Half 

 an hour later I took a look to see where they were 

 and every last one of them was in the young orchard 

 picking at some long grass that had been brought 

 into sight by the thaw. There was no waiting about 

 starting to get them out, for you know the way cows 

 have of rubbing their necks against young trees and 

 breaking off limbs. Luckily they had not started 

 rubbing and had done no damage, but I had to do 

 some rushing around before I finally got them out 

 of the orchard. But when I got them back to the 

 icy government drain there was all kinds of trouble. 

 You never saw such a timid bunch of cows in your 

 life. It was absurd to think that they could walk 

 on ice like that and what was more they wouldn't 

 do it. But I knew that they couldn't fly and that 

 they had crossed that ice on the way to the orchard 

 and I was just as stubborn as they were. Gritting 



24 



