ADVICE FOR LACKLAND 



"I am aware that the short-horn people — 

 who can see nothing good in a cow, except her 

 figure show mathematical straightness of line 

 from tail to the setting of her horn — sneer at 

 the comparatively diminutive Alderneys. It 

 is true, moreover, that there may be in them 

 a hollow of the back, and an undue droop to 

 the head, and possibly an angular projection 

 of the hip-bones; but their nose is of the fine- 

 ness of a fawn's, their eyes bright and quick 

 as a doe's ; their skin soft and silken, and with 

 a golden hue (if of good family), which gives 

 best of promise for the cream-pot. Above all 

 they have a tractability which, in a domestic 

 pet, is a most admirable quality. 'Spot,' (the 

 black and white Alderney,) the children can 

 fondle ; she can be tethered to a stake upon the 

 lawn, and will feed as quietly as if she were 

 in a field of lucerne : she is grateful for a 

 bonne bouche from the garden, and takes it 

 from the hand as kindly as a dog. This docil- 

 ity is a thing of great consequence upon a lit- 

 tle country place where every animal is made 

 more or less of a pet. It is not every cow that 

 will bear tethering upon a lawn; there are 

 those indeed who can never be taught to sub- 

 mit to the confinement. The sleek Alderneys 

 inherit a capacity for this thing, and I have 



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