MY TEXAS COWS by Frank Wilkeson

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 21, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 16.

MY TEXAS COWS.

By Frank Wilkeson

I OWNED sixty-five acres of bottom land where the coarse, blue-joint grass grew in cane brake like rankness. My Texas cows chose this dense cover in which to bring forth their young. One spring I knew that there were over twenty calves continually hidden in the grass on this bottom. Every morning cow after cow would slip out of the herd and disappear in the tall grass. After an absence of an hour or two, they would return to the herd. In the late afternoon they would again disappear, to rejoin the herd just about corralling time. When the calves were three or four days old, their mothers would bring them out into the herd, and their places in the grass would be occupied by younger calves. Once I desired to see the young calves, and I rode into the grass to hunt for them. After an assiduous search I found one calf lying prone on the earth, with its head and neck extended and pressed into the thick mat of old grass that lay on the ground. The little creature lay perfectly quiet, watching my horse. It did not so much as wink its dark eyes when I dismounted and extended my hand toward it. I leaned over it. It watched me intently, but did not stir. I dropped my hand on its head. Instantly it was on its feet and calling loudly for protection, calling that the wolf, its mother had told of, had come. I heard twenty mother cows bellow, in answer to the calf’s call, that they were coming. The dry grass snapped and cracked in all directions as the maddened cows rushed wildly to their young. I mounted my horse and quickly rode away from that spot. Each cow ran in a direct line to the place where its calf was hidden. The entire herd rushed into the cover to do battle for the calf. What an uproar there was—cows, steers, and bulls, all calling loudly to one another in angry, excited tones! I had a foolish setter dog with me, and he had to mix himself into the trouble. The first cow that saw him bellowed to the others that she saw the wolf. They all pursued him, and he, dog-like, fled to me for protection, and my own cows gave me a brisk chase as I galloped over the prairie. The herd were excited and angry for hours.—Frank Wilkeson, in Our Dumb Animals.