THE RED COW 



we were expecting visitors that day and that broilers 

 would be in order for dinner. I "obeyed that im- 

 pulse" at once, got up, lit the lantern, and started 

 on a raid. All I needed to do was to listen and locate 

 the lustiest crowers where they were roosting in the 

 apple trees. Then I went around and picked them 

 off the branches until I had half a dozen plump ones 

 stowed away in a coop. If they hadn't reminded me 

 of their existence by their fool crowing they might 

 still be alive and scratching gravel with both feet for 

 admiring young pullets. 



When the first light of dawn appears the young 

 ducks begin to jabber, where they are spending the 

 night in a packing box under an apple tree. A few 

 minutes later I have a chance to make my first ob- 

 servations through the tent flap as they march loqua- 

 ciously past in single file. Now that the mornings 

 are getting cool, sometimes with a touch of hoar 

 frost, the crickets, beetles and other innumerable in- 

 sects are sluggish, and the ducks seem to know just 

 where to look for them in the long grass. That re- 

 minds me that the wise old fellows who made up 

 our proverbs were not always careful observers of 

 natural phenomena. We have been told that it is 



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