pot found an old man
leaning idly over a gate, apparently concerned about nothing. "What
are you shouting about?" I demanded. "Cows," he answered, with a glance
across the wide green field dotted with a few big furze and bramble
bushes. On its far side half a dozen cows were, quietly grazing. "They
came fast enough when I was a-feeding of 'em," he presently added; "but
now they has to find for theirselves they don't care how long they keeps
me." I was going to suggest that it would be a considerable saving of
time if he went for them, but his air of lazy contentment as he leant
on the gate showed that time was of no importance to him. He was a
curious-looking old man, in old frayed clothes, broken boots, and a cap
too small for him. He had short legs, broad chest, and long arms, and
a very big head, long and horselike, with a large shapeless nose and
grizzled beard and moustache. His ears, too, were enormous, and stood
out from the head like the handles of a rudely shaped terra-cotta vase
or jar. The colour of his face, the ears included, suggested burnt clay.
But though Nature had made him ugly, he had an agreeable expression,
a sweet benign look in his large dark eyes, which attracted me, and I
stayed to talk with him.

It has frequently been said that those who are much with cows, and have
an affection for them, appear to catch something of their expression--to
look like cows; just as persons of sympathetic or responsive nature,
and great mobility of face, grow to be like those they live and are in
sympathy with. The cowman who looks like a cow may be more bovine than
his fellows in his heavier motions and slower apprehensions, but he also
exhibits some of the better qualities--the repose and placidity of the
animal.

He said that he was over seventy, and had spent the whole of his life
in the neighbourhood, mostly with cows, and had never been more than a
dozen miles from the spot where we were standing. At intervals while we
talked he paused to utter one of his long shouts, to which the cows paid
no attention. At length one of the beasts raised her head and had a long
look, then slowly crossed the field to us, the others following at some
distance. They were shorthorns, all but the leader, a beautiful young
Devon, of a uniform rich glossy red; but the silky hair on the distended
udder was of an intense chestnut, and all the parts that were not
clothed were red too--the teats, the skin round the eyes, the moist
em