XIV
THE MUSKRATS' WARNING
If it hadn't been for Johnnie Green there's no knowing how long the Muley Cow would have had to wear the wooden poke about her neck. Somehow Johnnie Green guessed that she didn't like it. So he teased his father to take the poke off her. And at last Farmer Green consented.
"We'll try her without it," he said. "We'll see how she behaves. We'll see if she has learned a lesson."
It was like a holiday for the Muley Cow when she went into the pasture without the heavy poke. For all her advanced age, she kicked up her heels and galloped clumsily over the hummocky hillside, quite like a frisky calf.
For just a moment or two she was tempted to jump the fence, she felt so gay. But luckily she remembered, before it was too late, that if she left the pasture she would probably have to wear the poke all the rest of that summer. And she decided it was worth her while to behave herself.
So she stopped running—for that was just a temptation to jump; and she began to pull at choice clumps of clover with her long tongue. Then, feeling thirsty, she went to the brook, where it flowed into the mill pond, to get a drink.
She splashed down into the water, not caring at all because she wet her feet. In fact, she liked the feeling of the cool water. She had stuck her nose into the brook and had drunk several great swallows when a squeaky sort of voice cried, "Stop that!"