"CHOW'S MISTAKE ! "

Otago Witness, Issue 2804, 11 December 1907, Page 70

" CHOW'S MISTAKE ! "

They're awful hardened specimens, those hungry, bush-bred cows, They spoil all social harmony and evil passions rouse; For when they take the "notion strong to wander far astray. They trust entirely to "Old Nick," who guides their lonely way. "We have a cow called "Beauty"— tho' ghe really is a "beast," * "Who changes her locality when one expects it least ; Straight thro 1 the bush, or down the sludge, or anywhere, in fact — Eight over logs, or^nto bogs, till "bailed up" in the act. She takes the fences like a bird, or breaks the tap Tails down. Or crawls between the bottom wires, just like a circus clown ; She wriggles round a. half-shut gate, or bites the staples thro', So long as she gets what she wants, she's right — my word, it's true! She eats my neighbour's purple-tops, she masticates his flowers; Among his carrots, parsley, peas she spends hex midnight hours. She tastes the clothes hung on his line. [At chewing thrown-out leather, She and her harmless spotted calf have happy times together.] She has as many fancies as a gilded millionaire. But being of the cornnioh she likes feer little share. Her share! Of course that means ;he lot, she and that calf deluded "Will ascertain all feeding grounds, however much sec'uded, She's got a great baldheaded pateh — in fact there's more than one; Some neighbours sprinkle -water hot, and some will fire a gun! The hair don't grow, it reaily should, I'm trying "Vile Wetter, ' For tar and pitch and all such cures are .caving her no better. The bold barbed wire upon her back has traced the map of Greece, My neighbour Jei'kms and myself once nearly broke the peace — She broke hi e fenrc. lie broke her back; I almost broke my no«e Against his strong right, r;gid hand, which he tcok care to close. One day I wandered far afield (It almost makes me laugh How inariv weary luckless times I've hunted cow and calf) But tins ore day was past a joke; she tumbled down a shaft. And was not shifted fiom that hole without a deal of graft. "We found a Chow had long "pegged out" without a ' minei's right," A Jail of earth had covered him completely cut of sight Year& parsed away , then Beauty ci'ire; the shaft was nearly hid , SliO \entured near its ferny edge, and quickly downwards s'id. We 1, ye« the joke row comes a.X last. "We call it "Br-auty Spot' ' Our new gold-mining pliucing claim — the ringer of the lot * We found seme colcuis in each spade, -.\e dug for Beaut;.''- f-ake , Tho' men. v!io ha\ eu't fortunes made ptill term it "Chow's Mi-take '"' — J. M'Lauculax. Round Hill. Soulh'and A=k for -nSiSt 3i-d deinsnd "WOLFE'S SCHNAPPS, i