CHAPTER II
SAL SCRUGS MAKES TROUBLE
EARLY the next morning from far and near came pigeons, blackbirds, swallows, robins and every other kind of bird that makes its home in Wisconsin in the summer. They had heard the news that the Chums had returned and now hastened to extend them a welcome on their own account as well as to deliver greetings from the animals on the different farms round about who were unable to get away, as most of them were either fenced in their pastures or shut up in their stables.
One homely, raw-boned, cross-eyed cow named Sal Scrugs whom no one liked and at whom everyone threw stones because she was always in mischief of some kind, said she was not going to send her message but was going to deliver it in person as these three were the only animals that had ever been nice to her. They understood and knew that the reason she behaved so badly was that everyone had always been so mean to her and never given her a kind word because she was so homely. She could not help being homely, and it had only soured her disposition to be treated so and called horrid names when it was no fault of her own. She said, “Very well, if people treat me badly, I will be more tricky and disagreeable than they ever thought of being.” So from calfhood she had tried to be mean. She would jump all the fences she could, trample people’s gardens and eat their early vegetables. Then too she would milk herself so when they wanted to milk her she would be dry. Another trick was to break down the fence and let all the other stock out. Consequently when she said she was going to see Billy, all the animals where she lived knew she would do it by jumping the fence in the pasture and running off.
“Listen, friends,” she said. “I want to ask you a question. How many of you would like to go to see Billy Whiskers, Stubby and Button if you had the chance?”
“We all would, I know,” spoke up an old brindle cow.
“Surely we would!” piped up all the others.
“Very well, then. When I am down in the pasture away from the house where no one can see me, I will break down the fence and you can all get out and run down the road and see the Chums before anyone knows you have left the pasture.”
“Oh, that will be fine!” said one of the young heifers. “I would just love a lark like that! Anything to cause a little excitement! We lead such a quiet life here with no change from day to day, month in and month out.”
“Yes, but how will you like it if, after we are out, Mr. Watson’s hired man sics Shep on us and he bites your legs and hangs on your tail? I tell you that dog has sharp teeth and gives a vicious bite for he has snapped at me more than once when I have not walked fast enough to suit him. You must remember I was born on the Watson farm and lived there until I was four years old, when I was sold to Mr. Jones.”
“I don’t care! I am willing to take the chance and the bite too for a little fun.”
“Here comes the hired man to drive us to pasture,” said Sal Scrugs.
Very sedately all the cows walked down the road to the pasture and after the man had shut them in, they lingered around the gate until he disappeared from sight over the brow of the hill. Then with a merry Ha! Ha! bellow in her throat, Sal Scrugs said, “Follow me along the fence until we come to the weak place in it. There are two loose posts that with a good hard push will fall right over into the road and then we can all pass through the opening and be free. Free! Oh, it is glorious to feel free!”
Sal was about to throw her weight against the weak section of the fence when one of the cows said:
“Hold on a minute! I think I hear a wagon coming down the road. We must wait until it passes or we will be caught.”
So they patiently waited until a big lumbering wagon had passed and disappeared over the hill. Then with a rush Sal ran to the fence and threw herself against it with all her might. Down it went with a crash and over toppled the posts as well. This made a great wide place for them to go through. They were in such a hurry to get out before any more wagons came along to stop them that two or three of the cows fell down in their mad haste to be on the way to see Billy, Stubby and Button. One cow hurt herself badly as she rushed over the fallen rails and she had to walk with a limp all the way to the Watson farm.
Billy and Nannie were on top of the old straw stack, their favorite resting place, for from there they could see all that went on in the barnyard directly under them and for two miles all around them.
Billy had just finished telling Nannie of one of his narrow escapes when, looking down the road, what should he see but all of Farmer Jones’ small herd of cattle coming on the run down the road. Indeed, before he could tell Nannie to look, they were turning in at the Watson lane.
“I wonder who is chasing them. It must be some stray dog for their own dog Nig knows cows should never be made to run,” said Billy.
“But I see no dog, or man either, Billy,” said Nannie. “See, they have spied us up on the stack and are making for it.”
By that time the foremost cow had reached the stack and each one was mooing to express the joy it gave her to see Billy back again and finding him as well and as strong as when he had left.
“A speech! A speech!” they called. Billy stood up on the straw stack where all could see and hear him. “Very dear and old tried-and-true friends, I cannot tell you with what joy I see you all again, and the welcome home you are giving me touches my heart most deeply.”
Just at this point his speech was interrupted by Mr. Watson and Shep running into the barnyard to drive out the stray cows.
“Well, I declare!” exclaimed Mr. Watson. “Instead of strange cattle these belong to Mr. Jones. They must have broken out of their pasture. Come, Shep, we will drive them back. Not so fierce there, Shep! There is no need to snap at them and hang on their tails, for you see they are going peacefully enough. And you must never snap or bite at an animal when it is going along quietly minding its own business.”
“Good-by, Billy! Good-by! Anyway, we saw you before we were driven back, and we are glad we broke down the fence and came.”
“Go away from me, you nasty dog! Can’t you see I am hurrying as fast as I can with a lame leg?” said the young cow whose aunt had warned her if she ran away a dog might snap at her heels and bite her. “I seem to be the only one that was hurt or at whom the dog really took a nip. But I don’t regret coming in the least, for I never saw Billy Whiskers before. I had heard so much about him that I wanted to see for myself if he was as wonderful as all the cows, horses, sheep, pigs and goats said he was. And he certainly is. My, but he looked handsome as he stood up on that straw stack addressing the crowd below, with his long white beard blowing in the wind and the sunshine making his silky white hair glisten like silver! Well, here we are back at our pasture. You may be sure I shall look out as I walk over those old rails this time so that I don’t hurt myself again.”
When the cows were all in, Mr. Watson tried to patch up the opening but he could not succeed in making the posts stand up, so he said to Shep, “Shep, you stay here and watch the cattle. Don’t let them come through the opening. I am going to tell Mr. Jones about his broken fence. Now mind, don’t let a single cow out!” and whistling, he turned and walked toward the Jones farmhouse.
He was scarcely out of sight when Sal Scrugs said, “Watch me pass that dog! If he tries to stop me, I shall send him a mile down the road and then if he comes at me again I shall hook him up in the air twenty-five feet.”
“Now look here, Sal Scrugs, you are courting trouble for yourself! Shep won’t hurt you if you behave, but just let any cow try to hook him and he will bite in earnest. What is more, he will bring you back to the herd if it takes him all day. Any animal he starts out to get, he gets if it takes all day to do it,” said the old cow that used to live at Mr. Watson’s, and therefore knew Shep and his ways well.
“Pooh! I’ll see a dog try to stop me! I always out-run them for, as you know, I have extra long legs which help me to jump fences and out-run dogs. And as I always keep in practice, I don’t get out of breath like most cows do. Then too my bag is small so it never bothers me by swinging from side to side when I run.”
“Just the same you will find Shep is an unusual dog, and he would consider it a disgrace to allow a cow to get away from him after he had been told to watch it.”