Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1914 — THE COWS AND THE COWARD [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE COWS AND THE COWARD

By SARAH NOBLE IVES

SUIr eat on the barnyard fence and watched her father at milking time. - ■ .■ • “Come over,” he cried. “The coWs ♦"Won’t hurt you.” “I’m afraid.” “Afraid of what? They’re perfectly gentle.” “I’m. afraid of their horns. They look so—so—hookey.” •»» Father laughed. “Thea? cows woudn’t hook a red flannel blanket. I am afraid my Sally’s a bit of a coward.” Now Sally knew that she was not a coward in all things. Had she not been all over the house/when It was so dark she»had to feel her way? Even the back stairs, where things might pop out at her from closets, did not daunt her. Then, too, had iha not ridden Prince .bareback to water many a time?. No, she was not a coward. “I don’t know what it is, papa, but when the cows look at me I just got to run.” “Yes, I saw you running away one day, when there was a ten-rail fence between you and one old mooly. You’re a funny girl for a farmer’s daughter.” “But, papa, I went with you to salt the cattle Sunday.” "Yes, Sally girl, but you gripped tight to me all the way, and when the cattle came close I had to take you up In my arms. Now, little maid, I think you ought to cure yourself of this fright. It Isn’t manly, and you know you want to be a boy. No brave boy would run from a cow.” . The tears swelled up Into Sally’s •yes, and her throat felt very achy.

As she trotted Into the house she determined to try and overcome her fear. The very next day she started out to cure herself. When no one was looking she took a berry pall and stole out to the barn where the rock salt was kept. With tho pall of salt upon her arm she trudged straight out to the cattle pasture. Her little heart went chug, like a steam launch, and her feet seemed to stick to the ground and pull back, and say, “Oh, Sally, anywhere but the pasture!” But they took her there. She let down a bar and crawled through. There was a tree in the middle of the pasture and she headed for that,calling: "Co, boss! Co, boss!” The cattle at the far end of the pasture heard her call and lifted their heads. "Co, boss! Co, boss!” That sound surely meant salt. “Moo-00-oo!” Across the field they came, galopty-galop. Sally shook like an aspen leaf, but held her ground, Jpr the reason that she was too far from the fence to run for it, and the one tree was too high to climb. With a fearful haste she flung the salt far and wide. -Within a few feet of her they stopped and nosed in the grass for the salt, mumbling and munching contentedly and never noticing little shared Sally. She waited till they were all busy and then turned and fled like the wind. Over the fence, pattering down the road she went, never daring to look behind, and she never halted~iill she was safe in her mother’s arms, And the worst of the story is this: -Sally was not cured. She is just as afraid of a cow now as she ever was.