VI. — Cow Troubles 



SAY, what do you do when a cow swallows a 

 rubber ball? I don't mean one of the hollow 

 kind, but a solid rubber ball about the size of 

 a small Ben Davis apple — one of the kind that 

 used to sting our fingers when we played "Long 

 Injun" with them at the old school. I hadn't seen 

 one for years, but this spring an old one was 

 ploughed up in one of the fields, and as it still re- 

 tained its shape and would bounce the children used 

 it to play with. Well, last night one of the boys 

 went to bring up the cows, and when a cow strayed 

 apart from the bunch and stood still he threw the 

 ball at her. He missed her, but as the ball rolled 

 past she ran after it and grabbed it, apparently un- 

 der the impression that it was an apple or a potato, 

 or something good to eat. I was in the stable when 

 the boy came to tell me about it as a great joke, and 

 I was inclined to think that the joke was on him, for 

 I felt sure that as soon as the cow found that she 



36 



