SAL SCRUGS MAKES TROUBLE
Early the next morning from far and near came pigeons, blackbirds,
swallows, robins and every other kind of bird that makes its home in
Wisconsin in the summer. They had heard the news that the Chums had
returned and now hastened to extend them a welcome on their own account
as well as to deliver greetings from the animals on the different farms
round about who were unable to get away, as most of them were either
fenced in their pastures or shut up in their stables.
[Illustration]
One homely, raw-boned, cross-eyed cow named Sal Scrugs whom no one
liked and at whom everyone threw stones because she was always in
mischief of some kind, said she was not going to send her message but
was going to deliver it in person as these three were the only animals
that had ever been nice to her. _They_ understood and knew that the
reason she behaved so badly was that everyone had always been so mean
to her and never given her a kind word because she was so homely. She
could not help being homely, and it had only soured her disposition to
be treated so and called horrid names when it was no fault of her own.
She said, “Very well, if people treat me badly, I will be more tricky
and disagreeable than they ever thought of being.” So from calfhood
she had _tried_ to be mean. She would jump all the fences she could,
trample people’s gardens and eat their early vegetables. Then too she
would milk herself so when they wanted to milk her she would be dry.
Another trick was to break down the fence and let all the other stock
out. Consequently when she said she was going to see Billy, all the
animals where she lived knew she would do it by jumping the fence in
the pasture and running off.
“Listen, friends,” she said. “I want to ask you a question. How many of
you would like to go to see Billy Whiskers, Stubby and Button if you
had the chance?”
“We all would, I know,” spoke up an old brindle cow.
“Surely we would!” piped up all the others.
“Very well, then. When I am down in the pasture away from the house
where no one can see me, I will break down the fence and you can all
get out and run down the road and see the Chums before anyone knows you
have left the pasture.”
“Oh, that will be fine!” said one of the young heifers. “I would just
love a lark like that! Anything to cause a little excitement! We lead
such a quiet life here with no change from day to day, month in and
month out.”
“Yes, but how will you like it if, after we are out, Mr. Watson’s hired
man sics Shep on us and he bites your legs and hangs on your tail? I
tell you that dog has sharp teeth and gives a vicious bite for he has
snapped at me more than once when I have not walked fast enough to
suit him. You must remember I was born on the Watson farm and lived
there until I was four years old, when I was sold to Mr. Jones.”
“I don’t care! I am willing to take the chance and the bite too for a
little fun.”
“Here comes the hired man to drive us to pasture,” said Sal Scrugs.
Very sedately all the cows walked down the road to the pasture and
after the man had shut them in, they lingered around the gate until he
disappeared from sight over the brow of the hill. Then with a merry Ha!
Ha! bellow in her throat, Sal Scrugs said, “Follow me along the fence
until we come to the weak place in it. There are two loose posts that
with a good hard push will fall right over into the road and then we
can all pass through the opening and be free. Free! Oh, it is glorious
to feel free!”
Sal was about to throw her weight against the weak section of the fence
when one of the cows said:
“Hold on a minute! I think I hear a wagon coming down the road. We must
wait until it passes or we will be caught.”
So they patiently waited until a big lumbering wagon had passed and
disappeared over the hill. Then with a rush Sal ran to the fence and
threw herself against it with all her might. Down it went with a crash
and over toppled the posts as well. This made a great wide place for
them to go through. They were in such a hurry to get out before any
more wagons came along to stop them that two or three of the cows fell
down in their mad haste to be on the way to see Billy, Stubby and
Button. One cow hurt herself badly as she rushed over the fallen rails
and she had to walk with a limp all the way to the Watson farm.
Billy and Nannie were on top of the old straw stack, their favorite
resting place, for from there they could see all that went on in the
barnyard directly under them and for two miles all around them.
Billy had just finished telling Nannie of one of his narrow escapes
when, looking down the road, what should he see but all of Farmer
Jones’ small herd of cattle coming on the run down the road. Indeed,
before he could tell Nannie to look, they were turning in at the Watson
lane.
“I wonder who is chasing them. It must be some stray dog for their own
dog Nig knows cows should never be made to run,” said Billy.
“But I see no dog, or man either, Billy,” said Nannie. “See, they have
spied us up on the stack and are making for it.”
By that time the foremost cow had reached the stack and each one was
mooing to express the joy it gave her to see Billy back again and
finding him as well and as strong as when he had left.
“A speech! A speech!” they called. Billy stood up on the straw stack
where all could see and hear him. “Very dear and old tried-and-true
friends, I cannot tell you with what joy I see you all again, and the
welcome home you are giving me touches my heart most deeply.”
[Illustration]
Just at this point his speech was interrupted by Mr. Watson and Shep
running into the barnyard to drive out the stray cows.
“Well, I declare!” exclaimed Mr. Watson. “Instead of strange cattle
these belong to Mr. Jones. They must have broken out of their pasture.
Come, Shep, we will drive them back. Not so fierce there, Shep! There
is no need to snap at them and hang on their tails, for you see they
are going peacefully enough. And you must never snap or bite at an
animal when it is going along quietly minding its own business.”
“Good-by, Billy! Good-by! Anyway, we saw you before we were driven
back, and we are glad we broke down the fence and came.”
“Go away from me, you nasty dog! Can’t you see I am hurrying as fast as
I can with a lame leg?” said the young cow whose aunt had warned her
if she ran away a dog might snap at her heels and bite her. “I seem to
be the only one that was hurt or at whom the dog really took a nip.
But I don’t regret coming in the least, for I never saw Billy Whiskers
before. I had heard so much about him that I wanted to see for myself
if he was as wonderful as all the cows, horses, sheep, pigs and goats
said he was. And he certainly is. My, but he looked handsome as he
stood up on that straw stack addressing the crowd below, with his long
white beard blowing in the wind and the sunshine making his silky white
hair glisten like silver! Well, here we are back at our pasture. You
may be sure I shall look out as I walk over those old rails this time
so that I don’t hurt myself again.”
When the cows were all in, Mr. Watson tried to patch up the opening but
he could not succeed in making the posts stand up, so he said to Shep,
“Shep, you stay here and watch the cattle. Don’t let them come through
the opening. I am going to tell Mr. Jones about his broken fence. Now
mind, don’t let a single cow out!” and whistling, he turned and walked
toward the Jones farmhouse.
He was scarcely out of sight when Sal Scrugs said, “Watch me pass that
dog! If he tries to stop me, I shall send him a mile down the road and
then if he comes at me again I shall hook him up in the air twenty-five
feet.”
“Now look here, Sal Scrugs, you are courting trouble for yourself! Shep
won’t hurt you if you behave, but just let any cow try to hook him and
he will bite in earnest. What is more, he will bring you back to the
herd if it takes him all day. Any animal he starts out to get, he gets
if it takes all day to do it,” said the old cow that used to live at
Mr. Watson’s, and therefore knew Shep and his ways well.
“Pooh! I’ll see a dog try to stop me! I always out-run them for, as you
know, I have extra long legs which help me to jump fences and out-run
dogs. And as I always keep in practice, I don’t get out of breath
like most cows do. Then too my bag is small so it never bothers me by
swinging from side to side when I run.”
“Just the same you will find Shep is an unusual dog, and he would
consider it a disgrace to allow a cow to get away from him after he had
been told to watch it.”