that cow back again!" roared Sam. "And tell my
dad I won't have hide nor hair of her on my place."

Back went the cow.

"Didn't I tell you?" mourned Mrs. Norris. "Sam's that stubborn and
contrary. It's no use, Billy; he just doesn't care for his poor old
father nor mother any more."

"By the jumping Jiminy Christmas! I'll _make_ him care!" thundered
old Billy. "I'm a-goin' ter see that grandchild of mine." Then
followed a long silence.

"I say, Marthy, how are they fixed in the house?" he questioned,
after many moments of apparently brown study.

"Pretty poor," answered Sam's mother, truthfully this time.

"Got a decent stove, an' bed, an' the like?" he finally asked.

"Stove seems to cook all right, but the bed looks just like straw
tick--not much good, I'd say," responded Mrs. Norris, drearily.

"A straw tick!" fairly yelled old Billy. "A straw tick fer my
grandson ter sleep on? Jim, you fetch that there cow here, right
ter the side door."

"What are you going to do?" asked Martha, anxiously.

"I'll show yer!" blurted old Billy. And going to his own room, he
dragged off all the pretty patchwork quilts above his neatly-made
bed, grabbed up the voluminous feather-bed, staggered with it in
his arms down the hall, through the side door, and flung it on to
the back of the astonished cow.

"Now you, Jim, drive that there cow over to Sam's, and if you dare
bring her back agin, I'll hide yer with the flail till yer can't
stand up."

"Me drive that lookin' circus over to Sam's?" sneered Jim. "I'll
quit yer place first. Yer kin do it yerself;" and the hired man
turned on his lordly heel and slouched over to the barn.

"That'll be the best way, Billy," urged Sam's mother. "Do it
yourself."

"I'll do it too," old Billy growled. "I ain't afraid of no dog on
four legs. Git on there, bossy! Git on, I say!" and the ridiculous
cavalcade started forth.

For a moment Martha Norris watched the receding figure through
blinding tears. "Oh, Sammy, I'm going to have you back again! I'm
going to have my boy once more!" she half sobbed. Then sitting down
on the doorsill, she laughed like a schoolgirl until the cow with
her extraordinary burden, and old Billy in her wake, disappeared up
the road. [This incident actually occurred on an Ontario farm
within the circle of the author's acquaintance.]

From the pillow, pretty Della could just see out of the low window,
and her wide young eyes grew wider with amazement as the ga