But I didn"t know, then, how very serious a person I had encountered.
"No--no," he stammered, "I haven"t seen your cow."
So I explained to him with sobriety, and at some length, the problem I had to solve. He was greatly interested and inasmuch as he was going my way he offered at once to a.s.sist me in my search. So we set off together. He was rather stocky of build, and decidedly short of breath, so that I regulated my customary stride to suit his deliberation. At first, being filled with the spirit of my adventure, I was not altogether pleased with this arrangement. Our conversation ran something like this:
STRANGER: Has she any spots or marks on her?
MYSELF: No, she is plain brown.
STRANGER: How old a cow is she?
MYSELF: This is her first calf.
STRANGER: Valuable animal?
MYSELF: _(fencing):_ I have never put a price on her; she is a promising young heifer.
STRANGER: Pure blood?
MYSELF: No, grade.
After a pause:
STRANGER: Live around here?
MYSELF: Yes, half a mile below here. Do you?
STRANGER: Yes, three miles above here. My name"s Purdy.
MYSELF: Mine is Grayson.
He turned to me solemnly and held out his hand. "_I"m_ glad to meet you, Mr. Grayson," he said. "And I"m glad," I said, "to meet you, Mr. Purdy."
I will not attempt to put down all we said: I couldn"t. But by such devices is the truth in the country made manifest.
So we continued to walk and look. Occasionally I would unconsciously increase my pace until I was warned to desist by the puffing of Mr.
Purdy. He gave an essential impression of genial timidity: and how he _did_ love to talk!
We came at last to a rough bit of land grown up to scrubby oaks and hazel brush.
"This," said Mr. Purdy, "looks hopeful."
We followed the old road, examining every bare spot of earth for some evidence of the cow"s tracks, but without finding so much as a sign. I was for pushing onward but Mr. Purdy insisted that this clump of woods was exactly such a place as a cow would like. He developed such a capacity for argumentation and seemed so sure of what he was talking about that I yielded, and we entered the wood.
"We"ll part here," he said: "you keep over there about fifty yards and I"ll go straight ahead. In that way we"ll cover the ground. Keep a-shoutin"."
So we started and I kept a-shoutin". He would answer from time to time: "Hulloo hulloo!"
It was a wild and beautiful bit of forest. The ground under the trees was thickly covered with enormous ferns or bracken, with here and there patches of light where the sun came through the foliage. The low spots were filled with the coa.r.s.e green verdure of skunk cabbage. I was so sceptical about finding the cow in a wood where concealment was so easy that I confess I rather idled and enjoyed the surroundings. Suddenly, however, I heard Mr. Purdy"s voice, with a new note in it:
"Hulloo, hulloo----"
"What luck?"
"Hulloo, hulloo----"
"I"m coming--" and I turned and ran as rapidly as I could through the trees, jumping over logs and dodging low branches, wondering what new thing my friend had discovered. So I came to his side.
"Have you got trace of her?" I questioned eagerly.
"Sh!" he said, "over there. Don"t you see her?"
"Where, where?"
He pointed, but for a moment I could see nothing but the trees and the bracken. Then all at once, like the puzzle in a picture, I saw her plainly. She was standing perfectly motionless, her head lowered, and in such a peculiar clump of bushes and ferns that she was all but indistinguishable. It was wonderful, the perfection with which her instinct had led her to conceal herself.
All excitement, I started toward her at once. But Mr. Purdy put his hand on my arm.
"Wait," he said, "don"t frighten her. She has her calf there."
"No!" I exclaimed, for I could see nothing of it.
We went, cautiously, a few steps nearer. She threw up her head and looked at us so wildly for a moment that I should hardly have known her for my cow. She was, indeed, for the time being, a wild creature of the wood. She made a low sound and advanced a step threateningly.
"Steady," said Mr. Purdy, "this is her first calf. Stop a minute and keep quiet. She"ll soon get used to us."
Moving to one side cautiously, we sat down on an old log. The brown heifer paused, every muscle tense, her eyes literally blazing, We sat perfectly still. After a minute or two she lowered her head, and with curious guttural sounds she began to lick her calf, which lay quite hidden in the bracken.
"She has chosen a perfect spot," I thought to myself, for it was the wildest bit of forest I had seen anywhere in this neighbourhood. At one side, not far off, rose a huge gray rock, partly covered on one side with moss, and round about were oaks and a few ash trees of a poor scrubby sort (else they would long ago have been cut out). The earth underneath was soft and springy with leaf mould.--
Mr. Purdy was one to whom silence was painful; he fidgeted about, evidently bursting with talk, and yet feeling compelled to follow his own injunction of silence. Presently he reached into his capacious pocket and handed me a little paper-covered booklet. I took it, curious, and read the t.i.tle:
"Is There a h.e.l.l?"
It struck me humorously. In the country we are always--at least some of us are--more or less in a religious ferment, The city may distract itself to the point where faith is unnecessary; but in the country we must, perforce, have something to believe in. And we talk about it, too!
I read the t.i.tle aloud, but in a low voice:
"Is There a h.e.l.l?" Then I asked: "Do you really want to know?"
"The argument is all there," he replied.
"Well," I said, "I can tell you off-hand, out of my own experience, that there certainly is a h.e.l.l----"
He turned toward me with evident astonishment, but I proceeded with tranquillity:
"Yes, sir, there"s no doubt about it. I"ve been near enough myself several times to smell the smoke. It isn"t around here," I said.
As he looked at me his china-blue eyes grew larger, if that were possible, and his serious, gentle face took on a look of pained surprise.