332 Next to the Ground 



above, even though it be stake-and-ridered. 

 She is, further, wise enough to eat in and in at 

 a hay or straw stack in bitter v/eather, until 

 she gnaws out a snug shelter for herself. 

 She has her likes and dislikes among bipeds 

 and quadrupeds: standing — the very pattern 

 of bovine content — to be milked by one 

 hand ; snorting and kicking the minute an- 

 other hand is laid upon her udder. Dogs, 

 in general, she hates. Shepherd dogs she 

 tolerates, because she knows they mean no 

 harm — besides, they are so persistent, there 

 is no use in trying to escape them. Among 

 grazing beasts she has a certain awed admira- 

 tion for horses, an amused contempt for 

 mules, toleration of a sort for hogs, and 

 bitter hate for sheep. 



Cattle, indeed, will not graze freely where 

 sheep have fouled and nipped the pasture, nor 

 drink where the wooly gentry have roiled the 

 water. This is partly because of the strong 

 odor — an ill odor — sheep leave behind, 

 partly also from the fact that sheep graze so 

 close even a rabbit can hardly nibble after them 

 until they have been three days away. Cows 

 have an odor of their own, nearly as strong 

 as the sheep smell, and pleasant or unpleasant 

 largely according to circumstance and state 

 of mind. The breath of cattle running 

 where there is much sweet vernal grass, is 



