for him to walk up
and catch them.

He was so tired that when he got himself in the saddle with the cow
ambling along meekly at his stirrup, he found himself feeling grateful
to them instead of vindictive. The locoed horses he decided to leave
until morning.

By the time he had reached his homestead and fallen out of the saddle,
he had forgotten that he had sworn to tie them up and "whale" them. On
the contrary, he was wondering if milking were a difficult process and
if he could accomplish it, for he could not find it in his heart to let
a dumb brute suffer. He remembered hearing that cows should be milked
regularly, and while his Jersey had goaded him to blasphemy he knew that
he would not be able to sleep if she was in pain through his negligence.

Picketing the horse as Pinkey had taught him, he put the cow on a rope
also. Then he set about the performance which had looked so simple when
he had seen others engage in it.

Among his accoutrements was a flashlight, and with this and a lard can
Wallie stood for a moment speculating as to whether the cow had any
preference as to the side she was milked on. He could not see that it
would make any material difference, so he sat down on his heel on the
side nearest and turned his flashlight on the spot where he wished to
operate. Placing his lard can on the ground where he could throw a
stream into it conveniently, he used his free hand for that purpose.

To his surprise, nothing happened--except that the cow stopped chewing
her cud and looked at him inquiringly. He persisted, but uselessly. Was
anything wrong with his system, he wondered? He thought not, since he
was milking exactly as he had seen the hired man milk on a farm where he
had once spent a month in his childhood.

He varied his method, making gentle experiments, but at the end of ten
minutes the lard can was still empty and the cow was growing restless.
For that he could not blame her. His hand ached and his foot seemed
about to break off at the ankle from sitting on it.

Wallie felt chagrined when he reflected that although he was a graduate
of Haverford College and was bringing all his intelligence to bear upon
it he was still unable to do what any hired man with an inch of forehead
could accomplish with no apparent effort.

Perhaps there was some trick about it--perhaps it _did_ make a
difference which side a cow was milked on. Wallie walked around and
turned the spot-light on the other side of his