APTER XXX

A JEALOUS OX

Mr. Wood had a dozen calves that he was raising, and Miss Laura
sometimes went up to the stable to see them. Each calf was in a crib,
and it was fed with milk. They had gentle, patient faces, and beautiful
eyes, and looked very meek, as they stood quietly gazing about them, or
sucking away at their milk. They reminded me of big, gentle dogs.

I never got a very good look at them in their cribs, but one day when
they were old enough to be let out, I went up with Miss Laura to the
yard where they were kept. Such queer, ungainly, large-boned creatures
they were, and such a good time they were having, running and jumping
and throwing up their heels.

Mrs. Wood was with us, and she said that it was not good for calves to
be closely penned after they got to be a few weeks old. They were better
for getting out and having a frolic. She stood beside Miss Laura for a
long time, watching the calves, and laughing a great deal at their
awkward gambols. They wanted to play, but they did not seem to know how
to use their limbs.

They were lean calves, and Miss Laura asked her aunt why all the nice
milk they had taken had not made them fat. "The fat will come all in
good time," said Mrs. Wood. "A fat calf makes a poor cow, and a fat,
small calf isn't profitable to fit for sending to the butcher. It's
better to have a bony one and fatten it. If you come here next summer,
you'll see a fine show of young cattle, with fat sides, and big, open
horns, and a good coat of hair. Can you imagine," she went on,
indignantly, "that any one could be cruel enough to torture such a
harmless creature as a calf?"

"No, indeed," replied Miss Laura. "Who has been doing it?"

"Who has been doing it?" repeated Mrs. Wood, bitterly; "they are doing
it all the time. Do you know what makes the nice, white veal one gets in
big cities? The calves are bled to death. They linger for hours, and
moan their lives away. The first time I heard it, I was so angry that I
cried for a day, and made John promise that he'd never send another
animal of his to a big city to be killed. That's why all of our stock
goes to Hoytville, and small country places. Oh, those big cities are
awful places, Laura. It seems to me that it makes people wicked to
huddle them together. I'd rather live in a desert than a city. There's
Ch--o. Every night since I've been there I pray to the Lord either to
change the hearts of some of the wicked people in it, or to