XVII. Teaching a Calf 



WHEN I got home I found a fresh calf 

 waiting to be taught how to drink out 

 of a pail. Now that several days have 

 passed, I feel that I can mention the 

 subject in proper language. Breaking in young 

 calves is just the same job now as it was when the 

 world was young. I dare say there is really nothing 

 new that one can say about it, but there seems to be 

 a sort of relief in saying some of the same old things 

 over again. This is a particularly lusty and likely 

 calf, grandson of Fenceviewer I., "that serpent of 

 Old Nile," familiarly known as the Red Cow. He 

 proves that there is something in the law of atavism, 

 for he takes after his unregenerate and belligerent 

 grandmother rather than after his gentle, though 

 somewhat sneaky, mother. Anyway, when I took 

 the pail of milk and started in to nourish him I found 

 him more stifF-necked than a Cabinet Minister. Still, 

 the line of approach was better. I straddled his 

 neck and pushed his head into the milk so that he 



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