IX. Cow Enjoyment 



DID any one say that a cow has no sense of 

 humour? I am not sure that any one did, 

 but cows, as a rule, are regarded as very 

 serious-minded. When Bill Nye tried to 

 emphasise the fact that he could occasionally be seri- 

 ous, he wrote: "There are times when I can be as 

 serious as a cow." He might also have written that 

 there were times when he could be as happy as a 

 cow having her will with a stack. Just let a cow get 

 free swing at a stack and she can have more solid 

 enjoyment than anything else on the farm. Up goes 

 her tail, down goes her head, and she rushes at it 

 as if she were going to pitch it over the moon. Then 

 she will throw herself against it sideways and rub 

 against it like a tom-cat in a catnip bed. If it hap- 

 pens to be a stack of sheaves, and she comes out of 

 her merry bout with a sheaf hanging rakishly from 

 one horn, she will look as happy as a woman coming 

 out of a bargain-counter scrimmage with a new hat. 

 As there is a stack between the stable door and the 



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