Dad was very pleased, and eager to start home. He went and found Dave,
who was asleep in a hay-stack, and along with Steven Burton they drove the
cow home, and yarded her in the dark.
Mother and Sal heard the noise, and came with a light to see Dad's
purchase, but as they approached "Dummy" threatened to carry the yard away
on her back, and Dad ordered them off.
Dad secured the rails by placing logs and the harrow against them, then
went inside and told Mother what a bargain he'd made.
In the morning Dad took a bucket and went to milk "Dummy." All of us
accompanied him. He crawled through the rails while "Dummy" tore the
earth with her fore-feet and threw lumps of it over the yard. But she
was n't so wild as she seemed, and when Dad went to work on her with a big
stick she walked into the bail quietly enough. Then he sat to milk her,
and when he took hold of her teats she broke the leg-rope and kicked him
clean off the block and tangled her leg in the bucket and made a great
noise with it. Then she bellowed and reared in the bail and fell down,
her head screwed the wrong way, and lay with her tongue out moaning.
Dad rose and spat out dirt.
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