I saw all them cows going lickety-split for the brook on the
lower side o' the parster, and some of 'em were in such a hurry that
they had their tails right up straight in the air!

"Ef you will believe it," Uncle Solon concluded, "not one of them cows
teched an oak acorn afterward."

Another laugh went round; but an interruption occurred. A good lady from
the city, who was spending the summer at a farmhouse near by, rose in
indignation and made herself heard.

"I think that was a very cruel thing to do!" she cried. "I think it was
shameful to treat your animals so!"

"Wal, now, ma'am, I'm glad you spoke as you did. I'm glad to know that
you've got a kind heart," said Uncle Solon. "Kind-heartedness to man and
beast is one of the best things in life. It's what holds this world
together. Anybody that uses Cayenne pepper to torture an animal, or play
tricks on it, is no friend of mine, I can tell ye.

"But you see, ma'am, it is this way. Country folks who keep dumb animals
of all kinds know a good many things about them that city folks don't.
Like human beings, dumb animals sometimes go all wrong, and have to be
corrected. Of course, we can't reason with them. So we have to do the
next best thing, and correct them as we can.

"I had a little dog once that I was tremendous fond of," Uncle Solon
continued. "His name was Spot. He was a bird-dog, and so bright it
seemed as if he could almost talk. But he took to suckin' eggs, and
began to steal eggs at my neighbors' barns and hen-houses. He would
fetch home eggs without crackin' the shells, and hold 'em in his mouth
so cunning you wouldn't know he had anything there. He used to bury them
eggs in the garden and all about.

"Of course that made trouble with the neighbors. It looked as if I'd
have to kill Spot, and I hated to do it, for I loved that little dog.
But I happened to think of Cayenne. So I took and blowed an egg--made a
hole at each end and blowed out the white and the yelk. I mixed the
white with Cayenne pepper and put it back through the hole. Then I stuck
little pieces of white paper over both holes, and laid the egg where I
knew Spot would find it.

"He found it, and about three minutes after that I saw him going to the
brook in a hurry. He had quite a time on't, sloshin' water, coolin' off
his mouth--and I never knew him to touch an egg afterward.

"But I see, ma'am, that you have got quite a robustious prejudice
against Cayenne. It isn't such bad stuf