Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1910-04-22
JIMMIE

been cast with men who possessed
any consideration for the dumb
| brutes with which they worked. In
deed they -.ad not even been requir-
ed to consider humane treatment of
animals a matter OF dollars and
cents. Accordingly, they kicked and
beat the horses and mules, swore at
the cattle, used clubs to intimidate
the hogs and were invariably cruel.
1t had never occurred to Jimmie
that the horses which they were COM
PEELED to drive into small enclosure
to catch might be taught to come
at the word of their master by the
exercise of little kindness, nor did
he know that COWS are naturally af-
fectionate If given the least en-
cOuragement.
But an incident happened late one
October afternoon which gave Jim
mle an entirely different apprecia-
tion OF animal life.
Brindle, a motherly old cow be-
longing to the herd on the farm. who
had few weeks previously present
ed her owner with a fine, well-de-
yeloped calf, had been missing for
several days. One of the men had
carelessly allowed Brindle and her
offspring to wander away into one of
the pasture fields. To Jimmie, who
had hoped he could go nutting that
afternoon, was assigned the duty of
hunting Brindle and the calf and
driving them back to the barn.
With a feeling OF resentment to-
ward his father, old Brindle and live
stock in general, Jimmie set out re-
luctantly to find the missing COW.
For two long hours he trudged across
the fields, through valleys; fighting
his way through underbrush and
berry hrambles, growing more angry
the while
Finally, when struggling through
one of the worst thickets he had en-
countered, he saw through the scar
ed leaves what he thought was
small portion of Brindle's coat and
closer investigation proved 1t to be
the old COW. Jimmie's first impulse
was to hunt a club and administer
beating to the cause Of his long fore
noon trudge, as the men of the farm
surely would have done.
But low. plaintive moo"
checked him, and attracted him
closer to Brindle. There he saw the
cause for her absence, for at her
feet lay cold in death the calf. The
hair about its head was wet from
repeated licking, which was Brindle's
only method of showing her affection
and indicated too her hope that her
baby might arise and follow her
once more.
Jimmie gently fastened rope
about the neck of Brindle and called
her to follow him. Taking a few
steps in compliance with his COM
mand, the old COW stopped, looked
back at the body of her calf and
then at Jimmie, mooing piteously. 1t
was too much for the lad and there
in the gathering twilight, with the
pathos of the situation appealing to
him as nothing had ever touched him
before he thought how his own moth
er would feel under like circum-
stances. Recognizing that it was
impossible to take the calf along and
that he could not bury it to prevent
the little body being torn by dogs
and wild animals during the night
and yet aware that he must take
Brindle home, Jimmie crept over to
the old COW, put his arm about her
neck, and tears trickled down his
freckled cheek as he tried to make
her understand that they must go.
Brindle seemed to understand and
without further objection followed
Jimmie quietly home.
Fortunately, none of the men were
at the barn when they arrived and
the old COW was placed quietly in
her stall and fed. At the supper
table Jimmie told the story of his ex-
perience between sobs, and although
at first some Of the men were in
clined to make sport Of the boys
Observation-Disclosures" he noticed
that they soon left the table. He af-
terward learned that they had gone
to the field where the cow and calf
were found and had buried the body,
so that 1t might be undisturbed. And
from that time on there came into
the lives of Jimmie and the men on
the big farm a spirit of humanity
toward the animals which had never
before been known. 1t Is needless to
add that the animals repaid the
kindness in like manner.
Sarah Nelson Carter, in Our Dumb
Animals.