s red, two because they were white, which, of course, brought up a
discussion between Mattia and myself. The veterinarian arrived. We
showed him the cows we liked.

"I think this one ought to be a good one," Mattia said, pointing to a
white animal.

"I think that is a better one," I said, indicating a red one.

The veterinarian stopped the argument we had begun by ignoring both and
passing on to a third one. This one had slim legs, red coat with brown
ears and cheeks, eyes bordered with black, and a whitish circle around
her muzzle.

"This is just the one you want," said the veterinarian.

It was a beauty! Mattia and I now saw that this was the best. The
veterinarian asked a heavy looking peasant, who held the cow by a rope,
how much he wanted for it.

"Three hundred francs," he replied.

Our mouths dropped. Three hundred francs! I made a sign to the
veterinarian that we must pass on to another; he made another sign that
he would drive a bargain. Then a lively discussion commenced between the
veterinarian and the peasant. Our bidder went up to 170, the peasant
came down to 280. When they reached this sum, the veterinarian began to
examine the cow more critically. She had weak legs, her neck was too
short, her horns too long, she hadn't any lungs and her teats were not
well formed. No, she certainly would not give much milk.

The peasant said that as we knew so much about cows, he would let us
have her for 250 francs, because he felt sure she would be in good
hands. Thereupon we began to get scared, for both Mattia and I thought
that it must be a poor cow then.

"Let us go and see some others," I suggested, touching the
veterinarian's arm.

Hearing this, the man came down ten francs. Then, little by little, he
came down to 210 francs, but he stopped there. The veterinarian had
nudged me and given me to understand that he was not serious in saying
what he did about the cow, that it was an excellent animal, but then 210
francs was a large sum for us.

During this time Mattia had gone behind her and pulled a long wisp of
hair from her tail and the animal had given him a kick. That decided me.

"All right, 210 francs," I said, thinking the matter was settled. I held
out my hand to take the rope.

"Have you brought a halter?" asked the man. "I'm selling my cow, not the
halter."

He said that, as we were friends, he would let me have the halter for
sixty sous. We needed a halter, so I parted with the sixty so