72 FRUIT R.WCHIXr,. 



would be able to continue their schooling, and yet 

 remain at home under our own eyes and under our 

 own care, a thing they could not do at Bonnington, 

 owing to the lack at that time of a school of any 

 kind in the neighbourhood. 



As soon as I resolved to move, I set about dis- 

 posing of my herd, or the greater part of it, for the 

 new ranch was much smaller, and did not possess 

 pasture more than enough to feed a team of horses 

 and at the most two cows. 



In answer to an advertisement which I put into 

 the local paper, a dairyman came out one night to 

 look at the bull with a view to buying him. It was 

 a pitch-dark night, and pouring with rain, and we 

 went to inspect the animal by the light of a lantern. 

 'J he dairyman could not, I am sure, see very much 

 of the beast; nevertheless, he made me a bid for him, 

 which I did not choose to accept. 



The young heifer and the biggest of the calves, 

 Nellie, the steeplechaser, I sold to a precise, con- 

 scientious old man, who came and talked half a day 

 about them before he finally made up his mind to 

 buy. At last he set ofT along the railway track at 

 the tail of the young heifer. I say "at the tail of 

 the young heifer " because, although we tied a long 

 rope to her horns, and put the other end in his hands, 

 with the idea that he should lead the animal to his 

 own home, seven or eight miles away down the rail- 

 way, the heifer started at such a pace that she literally 

 dragged the poor old man nearly off his feet in his 

 efTorts to keep up with her. Nellie ran along after 

 the two of them, and behind Nellie was Calaby, who 

 followed for about a mile, and then had to stop from 



