20 Turnaside Cottage.

 

as a brother. My first real grief was when this
cherished calf was sold—sold to the butcher one day
when I had been sent out on an errand to the shop.
I cannot think of it now without feeling sorry, he
was such a dear little fellow ; but then, I was almost
wild with grief and anger. I thought my father
wicked and almost inhuman for having done it, and
for some days I quite hated Nance, because she
laughed and called me a little fool, and reminded
me that all veal had been calf once. She laughed
still more when Sally-the-shop, who had come into
tea as usual, offered to get mea bit of him, if it
would give me any pleasure. I really believe that
she meant it in all good faith ; but, indignant at this
outrage to my feelings, I rushed out into the cow-
house, and there, my father being absent, I remained
all night, and slept in the straw by Monna’s side.

She missed her calftoo, and a mournful low from
Monna was enough to set me off in a fit of crying,
that only stopped when I was too much exhausted
to cry any longer. J was becoming really ill with
crying and fretting, when a childish idea, which
turned the current of my thoughts, happily soothed
my childish grief.

I had found an oddly-shaped piece of branch,
which, with a little imagination, could be thought
to represent an animal with four legs and a head.