CH.X.] A COW OF EXPENSIVE TASTES. 141 
the matter of diet, their cattle, it would seem, 
occasionally take after them in this respect. I was 
one day fishing the Ness out of a boat, when I 
noticed a cow inquisitively examining some things 
which I had left by the water-side. On landing 
I found she had been influenced by other mo- 
tives than those of mere curiosity, having eaten 
up the whole of one side (the button half) of a 
new macintosh. Happening shortly afterwards 
to meet the miller whose property she was, I 
exhibited to him the mangled evidence of her 
misdeeds, expecting at least to meet with some- 
thing like sympathy for my loss. His sympathies 
were however all on the other side. He surveyed 
it for some time in silence and with an air of 
dejection, and then simply exclaimed, “Eh, but 
she'll no be the better o’ the buttons!” 
