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158
Adventures in Contentment
·
David Grayson
109
I
should
never
have
been
able,
indeed,
to
get
the
cow
and
calf
home,
last
night
at
least,
if
it
had
not
been
for
my
chance
friend.
He
knew
exactly
what
to
do
and
how
to
do
it.
He
wore
a
stout
coat
of
denim,
rather
long
in
the
skirts.
This
he
slipped
off,
while
I
looked
on
in
some
astonishment,
and
spread
it
out
on
the
ground.
He
placed
my
staff
under
one
side
of
it
and
found
another
stick
nearly
the
same
size
for
the
other
side.
These
he
wound
into
the
coat
until
he
had
made
a
sort
of
stretcher.
Upon
this
we
placed
the
unresisting
calf.
What
a
fine
one
it
was!
Then,
he
in
front
and
I
behind,
we
carried
the
stretcher
and
its
burden
out
of
the
wood.
The
cow
followed,
sometimes
threatening,
sometimes
bellowing,
sometimes
starting
off
wildly,
head
and
tail
in
the
air,
only
to
rush
back
and,
venturing
up
with
trembling
muscles,
touch
her
tongue
to
the
calf,
uttering
low
maternal
sounds.
"Keep
steady,"
said
Mr.
Purdy,
"and
everything'll
be
all
right."
When
we
came
to
the
brook
we
stopped
to
rest.
I
think
my
companion
would
have
liked
to
start
his
argument
again,
but
he
was
too
short
of
breath.
It
was
a
prime
spring
evening!
The
frogs
were
tuning
up.
I
heard
a
drowsy
cowbell
somewhere
over
the
hills
in
the
pasture.
The
brown
cow,
with
eager,
outstretched
neck,
was
licking
her
calf
as
it
lay
there
on
the
improvised
stretcher.
I
looked
up
at
the
sky,
a
blue
avenue
of
heaven
between
the
tree
tops;
I
felt
the
peculiar
sense
of
mystery
which
nature
so
commonly
conveys.
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