162 



I then returned to Daniel. 



"Damn the cow!" said Daniel. 



"That don't amount to anything," I replied, 

 "I have done that for months." 



"Kill her then," he retorted, and washed his 

 hands of the affair. 



This was perhaps the best advice he had given, 

 but I couldn't bring myself to do violence to so 

 old and tried a chum. We had had too many 

 wildly exciting times together. She was rough, 

 but I always could depend on her to do the best 

 she could and give me a square tussle. 



In due time the calf came and was pronounced 

 a beauty. He much to my regret it was a he 

 did not seem exactly handsome or shapely. 

 On the contrary, he seemed a sprawling heap of 

 awkward, bony, wobbly legs. 



Indeed, he spent the best part of the first day 

 in awkward attempts to rise, and prodigious suc- 

 cesses in the way of heavy crumpled-up tumbles. 

 But in a few days, Moses! how that calf could 

 run, kick and butt. 



We naturally had a little reception for it. You 

 see, a calf is a new thing to us and we were proud 

 of it, her, him, I mean. So one day as I 

 was exhibiting it, him - - to several neighbors, 

 he reached forward, caught hold of a button on 

 my vest, just over the pit of my stomach, and 

 mouthed it in the most cunning manner. I held 



