OUE RURAL DIVINITY 133 



caught as I turned for a parting glance, went to my 

 heart ! 



Her stall was soon filled, or partly filled, and this 

 time with a native, — a specimen of what may be 

 called the cornstalk breed of Virginia; a slender, 

 furtive, long-eared heifer just verging on cowhood, 

 that in spite of my best efforts would wear a pinched 

 and hungry look. She evidently inherited a humped 

 back. It was a family trait, and evidence of the 

 purity of her blood. Per the native blooded cow of 

 Virginia, from shivering over half rations of corn- 

 stalks in the open air during those bleak and windy 

 winters, and roaming over those parched fields in 

 summer, has come to have some marked features. 

 For one thing, her pedal extremities seem length- 

 ened; for another, her udder does not impede her 

 traveling ; for a third, her backbone inclines strongly 

 to the curve; then, she despiseth hay. This last is 

 a sure test. Offer a thorough- bred Virginia cow hay, 

 and she will laugh in your face ; but rattle the husks 

 or shucks, and she knows you to be her friend. 



The new-comer even declined corn-meal at first. 

 She eyed it furtively, then sniffed it suspiciously, 

 but finally discovered that it bore some relation to 

 her native "shucks," when she fell to eagerly. 



I cherish the memory of this cow, however, as 

 the most affectionate brute I ever knew. Being 

 deprived of her calf, she transferred her affections 

 to her master, and would fain have made a calf of 

 him, lowing in the most piteous and inconsolable 

 manner when he was out of her sight, hardly forget- 



