If there was anything that Mr. Crow enjoyed more than another, it was teasing some person that was angry. So he kept his word. As soon as he had finished his breakfast he came back to the pasture and sought out the Muley Cow.
"Good morning!" he said very politely.
"Ah, ha!" she cried. "You've been gossiping about me. You've been telling everybody about this poke."
"It's most becoming," Mr. Crow said with a grin. "I supposed you'd like to have the neighbors know you were wearing something new."
"Well, I don't!" she retorted. "It's bad enough to have a poke put on my neck, at my age, without having the news spread all through Pleasant Valley."
"You can thank yourself for the fix you're in," Mr. Crow told her bluntly. "At your age you should have known better than to jump fences."
"How would you like it if you had to stay in this pasture day after day?" the Muley Cow asked him.
Mr. Crow hemmed and hawed.
"How would you like it if you couldn't go into the cornfield?" she went on.
Mr. Crow choked slightly but made no reply.