THE RED COW 



we mingled wild laughter with words of mourning 

 and wondered what on earth we would do. At last 

 we decided that we might as well call off the hunt 

 as he couldn't trail an automobile, much less a coon, 

 after getting such a dose. So we started towards 

 the road with Sheppy still on the other side of the 

 fence. He kept abreast of us as we moved home- 

 ward, 



"An amber scent of odorous perfume 

 His harbinger." 



When we reached the road Sheppy came along like 

 a comet with a tail of odour streaming out behind 

 him. He seemed to be trying to run away from it, 

 but it was no use. If he could quote Milton he 

 would no doubt have said : 



"Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell." 



After noisily repulsing his attempts to nuzzle 

 against us for sympathy we sat on another set of 

 bars and moodily reviewed the situation. It was far 

 from probable that our home-coming would be the 

 signal for rejoicing. Sheppy is the family pet and 

 now his usefulness as a pet was seriously impaired. 

 While we were talking this over Sheppy came and 

 stood right under us. That ended the talk. We 



186 



