The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1913-10-03
FATE AND A
COW
By N. DUAL
B. N. QUAD
Copyright, 1918. by Associated Lit
erary Press.

III IL
erary Press. II
Professor Slocum Of the college at
Madison was fifty years old at a .
tain date. He was tall and stoop
%shouldered and ungainly. He was ret.
lcent and undemonstrative, and socie-
ty knew him not at all. Miss Deborah
Day Of the same town had reached the
age Of forty-ive. She was plain Of
face and frigid Of attitude. and her
charms were missing.
1t vas one Sunday In church that
fate brought the old bach and the old
maid together in the same pew, and
they sang from the same hymn book.
Fate, through a mutual acquaintance,
introduced them after the sermon. A
few evenings later the professor call
ed. The talk vas Of philosophy. he
called again. and they talked Of theoso-
ply. He made a third call. and the age
Of the world was under discussion for
an hour, After that it was for the
COW to do her part
One evening, just at shutdown, Miss
Day walked forth in a meadow to
gather a few daisies. At the same
hour it s%ingularly happened that Pro-
fessor Slocum sought the same mead.
ow in search Of geological specimens.
The lady discovered her daisies, the
professor discovered his pebbles. the
two people discovered each other, and
together they discovered q COW. A
COW may be simply an animated object
on the landscape o. she may be q dis
covery because she Is enraged owe
the loss Of a horn knocked OF in some
way and because she has her head
down and her tail up and IL charging
the pebbles and daisy gatherers.
Then the fifth discovery showed up.
1t was a COW shed twenty rods away.
q rough affair that had seen bet.
ter days The meadow was retired.
and the shed was more 20. They
reached It just in time for the pro-
fessor to find a board and bar the en-
trance against the COW and later on to
further strengthen it. There was no
doubt about the bovine being In ear-
nest. She made frantic efforts to tear
down the shed with her remaining
horn. and when she could not effect
an entrance she stood on guard to keep
her victims from coming out. Dark
ness suddenly fell, and then the per
turbed couple suddenly realized their
situation.
Professor Slocum, l must leave here
this Instant" exclaimed the horrined
Miss Day.
And 90 must IT. was the reply.
1T ts not properw
Certainly mott"
II shall be a laughingstockv
And l the same!"
n can't 60. but you must!'' said Miss
Day az the COW quieted down. PRO.
lessor. you must see that you must 90
you must see IT."
NJ do see it." he replied. land. while
l cannot depart from. the shed, ! can
climb on the top Of it."
This he accomplished by making bis
way through q gap in the roof. He
was now In q position Of p%ropriety.
but there was the COW again. When
she saw him perched up there, 80 near
and YET 80 far. she tried to climb up
after him. and at the end Of two min
utes Miss Day was shrieking for pro-
lection. Down scrambled the pro
fessor. and the COW took to running
around the shed to ind where be
had disappeared. The interior of the
shed had now become so dark that
nothing could be seen. In trying to
strengthen the door some more the pro-
lessor fell down and rolled over. In
trying to 60 to bis assistance Miss Day
suddenly found herself sprawling.
Can a person maintain ~frigidness
when surrounded by q COW shed, with Q
mad COW battering away at the door?
! Can a person be stilted after rolling in
the straw and dirt? Can he or she be
severely ceremonious when 1t IL Inn
possible to see each other? The pro-
lessor wisely decided that they could
not. and he reached out and clasped
Miss Days hand. She returned the
clasp. Then he put his arm around her
In a protecting way, and she did not
| 9u11uA. xuCU Iuc VVV wv AS0OS w
her mind to melt the frost and bring
out the turtledoves II she had TO
break her neck to DO it. She gave .
below Of warning and retreated eight
or ten rods and then came for the side
Of the shed. like a runaway locomotive.
She hit it fair and square. and two
thirds Of 1t caved In IKE q mousse q
sand. In the caving she was mixed up
with beams and boards, and the pro
lessor took advantage Of the occasion
to tear the door aside and then pull
his companion out into the open. Then
they ran for the nearest fence. 1t
wasn't dignined to fall down three or
four times, but they fell. It wasn't
eminently proper, when the fence va
reached and the COW was hard on theaT
trail, for the professor 20 throw Hiss
Day over and then take . scramble
himself. but that's the way It wa
worked Then % oon % the man n
the case could get his breath he -
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