“Oh, Tom!” Nellie exclaimed, “look at that poor, helpless creature. It cannot even lie down. Who tied it like that?”
“No one,” he replied. “Don’t you see it has wound itself up by twisting the rope about the tree as it ran around it.”
“Such a look of resignation,” Nellie said. “It reminds me of the people in the cities. They, too, are tied by the rope that the trusts and custom have wound them up with.
“They suffer and die without knowing how easy it is to—go back—just like—the calf. Oh!” she cried; “it will run over me. I didn’t know the rope was so long.”
“Look out, or he will kick you before I can get hold of the rope. I had to drive him back the way he came, and I forgot that you didn’t know the ways of calves,” Tom said hurriedly, as he ran to secure it. She had moved far enough away to feel safe before she continued in the same train of thought.
“It has trampled its food down as it ran around its shelter, besides amusing itself. Again that is like the majority of city people. The infants play with rattle boxes, but the grown children with politics and money. A shelter and food are gambled for until the age limit confronts them.”
“There you are, old fellow,” Tom exclaims, not noticing Nellie’s reverie as he unties the rope. “Now, Nellie, you go on to the house, and tell them I am coming as hungry as a bear. I’ll give him a drink before he does the same thing over again.”
Nellie started and was crossing the orchard when she saw a number of cows eating apples that had fallen on the ground. She thought of little children in the city who rarely tasted an apple and could be seen looking longingly at the street stands. The abundance of fruit everywhere on this large estate of several hundred acres was amazing to her, as she compared the need of these things in the cities. “Oh, what an unnecessary waste,” she thought. “It would have seemed incredible if I had been told it. Here are cows feeding upon the rarest varieties.”
“Well,” exclaimed Mira, laughingly, as she appeared around the corner of an outbuilding, “are you trying to cheat the cows? We have been keeping dinner until I expect it is spoiled, waiting for you. Mother became uneasy and sent me to hurry you up.”