The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1911-06-01
THAT OLD
SPOTTED COW
By NJ. QUAD
By NJ. QUAD
Copyright, 1911, by Associated Lit
erary Press.

BILE in the church. No fires had taken
place. and no one had been drowned in
the mill pond.
All this was not changed in the
twinkling of an eye, but in about
week. The Widow Strong moved over
there from Granville, and one of the
things she brought with her was an
old spotted cow She had moral and
legal right to do this. She also had a
moral and legal right to let that Old
COW run at large in the streets. That
is the custom in most all villages.
The cow was sized up, but with no
critical eye. She was judged to be
good tempered and law abiding. She
betrayed a becoming modesty and had
no quarrels. But the town was de-
eeived in that cow Deacon Pegram
awoke one morning to find her in his
garden. She had eaten every stalk of
his green corn. He was a good man,
the deacon, but he felt it his duty to
take a club to that old COW and thump
and pound her and run her out of his
garden. Within two hours after he
had done so he had lawsuit on his
hands. The Widow Strong proposed to
stand By her COW at all hazards.
OF course the deacon had to bring
counter suit. That old spotted cow
broke into another garden. There was
no corn there, but she was not par
ticular cow. She filled up on beets,
raGishes and cucumbers and in the
morning was found cOmplacently
chewing her cud in the onion bed.
The garden of third citizen was
spoiled, then a fourth and fifth. At
shutdown that COW would be lying in
the dusty street with half closed eyes
and look of innocence on her face
Three hours later she would be play
Ing the role Of devastatOr Most of the
fences had stood for twenty years, and
she found little trouble in pushing her
way through them. When her eccen-
trio conduct became known dozens of
citizens sat up nights to get whack
at her. She did not always come off
winner. but with the later bugs to aid
her she did fairly well. Every time
she was found in a garden she was
thumped; every time she was thumped
meant a lawsuit; every time there was
new lawsuit the town was divided
again.
Things couldn't go on that way. The
selectmen of the village held a special
meeting and decided to officially appeal
to the Widow Strong to sell out that
old COW to the butcher.
mot if l know myself" was her re-
ply. 81 have owned that cow for thir-
teen years, and l don't propose to see
no butcher make beef of her. 1t isn't
the COW. but the fences. Make 'em fix
up their fences, and the COW will stay
on the outside"
Then the selectmen held a special
meeting and resurrected an old ordi
nance by which a stray cow could be
impounded and held for any damage
it might do. A delegation waited on
the widow to notify her. and she laugh
ed in their faces.
mo such bluff goes with me-" she
added ''There are thirty cows at large
in this town. If you take mine you
take the others Go to grass with your
old ordinance"
The minister Of the only church in
the village had kept clear Of the affair
up to now, but things were getting so
hot that he was dragged in. He was
asked to call on the widow and talk
COW to her-tall old spotted COW He
didn't fancy the job, but still he called.
Of course he had let to say before
he got around to the COW question, and
he had scarcely touched upon it when
The widows chin was in the air and
she replied:
II tell you l won't have that dumb
animal abused She's stood by me,
and I'm going to stand by her
The good man went away disheart-
ened. And yet. after all. it was he
who solved the problem. He heard
that Elder Comstock. widower, had
been seen calling on the widow. and
he sent for him and said:
Elder, are you well enough ac-
quainted with the Widow Strong to
form an opinion regarding herr
Every set i'm her ways" was the reply.
"YOu are alone in the world. elder"
"Yes'
"You managed your other wife,"
81 did"
"And if you We're married to this
woman | believe you could manage
her.
81 dunno about that: dunno
'And you could sell or trade that
cow and bring peace to the town The
church is threatened with disruption
Something must be DONE
."You don't mean I ought to marry
the widow"
"Well, don't you think you'd be hap
pier?
al might"
''And if you can settle this cow ques-
ton isn't it your duty to sacrifice
little?'
"She's a woman that will throw
things when she gets mad" said the
elder after a long silence.
'But that old COW is devastating the
village. Elder, you'd die for your coun-
try, wouldn't you?"
The elder took a couple of days to