The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-09-13
TALE OF A COW.
BY JULIA TRuITT BISHOP.

The COW was the cause of the entire | trouble. There could not have been 8 more self-confident COW in any country; | a COW more filled with the comforting | conviction that whatever was, was hers. Moreover, she was a resouEcefui COW, and when selfish people built fences around their possessions and established. gates with cunning fastenings, she laughed in whatever part of her integument answer forth to set their plans at naught. Added to her other evil habits, she
 wore a bell. There was nothing silvery
 or romantic abeus this bell: There was
 no gentle "Ko-ling, ko-iang, ko-ingle-
 lingie," as 1t wok. the ecnoes of the
 night and startled whippoorwills and
 crickets into dismayed silence: IL was a
 hars h, .brassy, irritating bell that seemed
 to be the voice of the COW. keeping up
 an endless fire of argt meht.
 And when Richard Lsnham, writer and work. and hied him to the little farm he had bought in the heart of the pine eoun; t:y, 1t was the COW that gave h,m cordial greeting ana made him welcome The COW and Mir. Lanham did not meet | immediately after his arrival. Perhaps
 that circumstance accounted in great
 measure tor his satisfaction as he lay
 in hammock under the trees; that nrst morning. and said 10 the colored man who Was to share his solitude as general tactotum:
 "Thi5 is very pleasant, Sam As soon as you finish break asst l wish you would
 mend that fence, there; where 1t is broken. If this orchard is taken care Of
 little. we will have plenty of fruit next summer"
 'Yessah. I was jes' d noticin dat hole | in de fence" said Sam and d little while | after his master heard the sound of ham, mer and saw ia the direction of the l broken fence.
 Not for many weeks had the jaded lite-
 rary hack fallen asleep 10 peacefully or slept so sweetly as that night, with the
 nurmur of the pines around him. Some
 thing had swept away all the tired years in which he had toiled beyond his
 strength for go little gain, and he was as spend the remainder of my fife here" he | said to himself dremly, when h. walked
 smiling into the darkness; and turned
 over and went to sleep, again. It was the brassy. insistent dangling of | q far-off bell first; a bell that seemed
 to be merely wandering aimlessly around | the country. Lanham awoke and heard
 it. and moved about little restlessly. | ''l don't know why l cant g5t to sleer
 again" he said to himself All at once the COW was seized with
 an impulse. She came nearer. He could
 r. cognize the fact that she had approach | cd the fence, and had paused. as tonished
 to find that tho broken place was there | no more.
 Can I believe my eyes?" she seemed | to b9 saying.
 The bel! moved slowly up and down
 the line of fence. The COW was recon
 Then the bell gave out d leadcn sound
 and loud crash woke the stiffness. The
 COW had thrown herself against the fence The bell changed merrily along the or
 chard and into the garden.
 l There's nothing in the place to eat
 she cant stay long" said the weary
 side and tried to cover both ears with l the pillow by winding it around his head. The COW came on into the yard. and | rubbed her own head g inst the cornes | of the house. just beneath L1nham' s l window. Her head feemed to need a | good deal of rubbing. Minutes passed ard there was ID siga of sbatem ent in It was Sam who arose Lanham heard
 him coming along the hall, and hastily | lay down again.
 os. aodf K0p some @n WI weapan of offense, and there was the sound of hurrying feet, accompanied by merry
 jubilation on the beil. Then in. the si- | lonce Sam went back along the hall, re- marking in an nndertone; If 1 lib till
 anuddsr day I'll fix dat of bag-o'-
 Half an hour later Lanham was | awakened hy the bell. The COW was has | tening back along the orchard as though she had forgotten something. She came | Eurriedly into the yard and rubbed her
 whole body against the corner of the | house, going systematically down one | side and then beginning on the other. .! believe I'll sit rp and resd awhile, | said Lanham.
 The next morning Sam issued forth | with hammer and nGil?, and spent half the morning going over the fence and
 carefully strengthening every part that | even looked weak.
 | "l reckon I'll have dat cow a-gueSsin' dis night" he said cheerfully. This was the beginning of the cam
 paign against the COW; a campaign in l which the COW was invariably triumph | ant, while Lanham grew h9ggard with | sleeplcssnrgs and Sam said that COW used
 q ladder to g,t over the fence when there | was no other way,
 Who owns that black-and-white COW
 with a bell?" demanded Lanham savage | Saturday WHEN SIR HUMPHREY