k, he had given Davy Munn half a
liquorice stick and three walnuts to whack [Transcriber's note: watch?]
Keturah just long enough to admit of his taking one ride on the
merry-go-round. Davy had consented; but as the orphan had remained
away long enough to ride through all the money Jake Sawyer had upon his
person, Mr. Munn calmly left Keturah to her own devices and swaggered
leisurely away. The cow wandered off, and making her way behind the
pine grove, arrived at the race course just as the bundle of hay in
Sawed-Off's sulky shot past. Whether Keturah saw a good meal
disappearing, and wisely made after it, or whether the enraged shriek
of her young master, who just then discovered her position, frightened
the gentle animal into flight, no one will ever know. Whatever the
cause, Keturah threw up her horns, her tail and her heels, and with her
third-prize ticket dangling in view of the whole township, she
scampered into the ring in the wake of Sawed-Off's flying coattails;
while after her, mad with rage that she should have dared to advertise
her shame, and shrieking most un-orphan-like anathemas, came her young
keeper.

Now, poor Sawed-Off Wilmott, being only a maker of cheese, was
naturally considered slightly beneath his farmer neighbors in the
social scale. His employment had a touch of effeminacy about it, and
gave a man the air of being merely an assistant to the cow. And now,
at the sight of this animal pursuing him relentlessly, as though to
claim him for her own, the whole of Elmbrook fair burst into a
thunderous roar of laughter. Sawed-Off glanced back to see the cause,
just as his horse's head passed the front wheel of his lady's buggy.
With a start of chagrin he realized his ignominious position. To go
around the track again in the face of that jeering crowd, with the cow
close at his heels, was impossible. He pulled up sharply, jerked his
horse aside, and drove off behind the sheds. Miss Long and Lochinvar
made one more triumphant circuit, and disappeared in another direction.
Tim succeeded at last in forcing Keturah to dodge into a path that led
to her corner, and the unique race ended.

Gilbert's visitors were laughing heartily; Rosalie had completely
forgotten her ill-temper, and danced about consumed with merriment.

"Oh, I say!" cried Blackburn, leaning weakly against a tree, "that's
better than the king's plate!"

"Oh, if Piper Angus had only got in behind the kid!" cried Malcolm
Cameron