"She won't git no chanst to 'scape, unless she kin go out the way the chillern does," laughed Mrs. Jenkins.
One day the Boarder brought home some information that seemed to throw light on the subject.
"One of the railroad hands told me that a big train of cattle was sidetracked up this way somewhar the same night the cow come here. The whole keerload got loose, but they ketched them all, or thought they did. Mebby they didn't miss this ere one, or else they couldn't wait to look her up. Their train pulled out as soon as they rounded up the bunch."
"I guess the cow-house looked to her like it was a freight car," observed Milt, "and she thought she hed got back where she belonged."
The cow, meanwhile, quietly chewed her cud, and continued to endear herself to the hearts of all the Jenkins family save Cory. Every time Bobby spoke her name he called to her, "Co, boss! Co, boss," just as Gus did when he greeted the cow.
As for the little dairyman himself, he gave his charge the best of care. He took her for a little outing every day to a near-by lot where she could graze, being careful to keep a stout rope attached to her, although they walked to and from the recreation ground side by side. Derry painted a little picture of the pair as he saw them returning from a jaunt. Gus's arm was lovingly thrown around the neck of the gentle creature, and her Texas horns were adorned with a wreath of brown-eyed Susans woven by Cory.
It remained for Mrs. Jenkins to christen the creature.
"'Cowslip,'" she declared triumphantly, "'cause she just slipped in."
CHAPTER XX
Amarilly's pace in learning English from Derry during the following winter was only excelled by her proficiency in mathematics. "Figgerin'" the Boarder declared to be his long suit, and his young pupil worked every example in Flamingus's arithmetic, and employed her leisure moments in solving imaginary problems. Then came an evening when she put her knowledge to practical use and application. She had been working absorbedly with pencil and paper for some time when she looked up from her sheet of figures with a flushed race and a Q.E.D. written in each shining eye.