The Lost Idea 17

not her usual custom)—and tossed her head
seven times with pride.

“Then Dame Betsy has stolen my Idea,”
thought Timothy; and he watched from
behinda hedge. He saw Dame Betsy
make up a hot-bed, and peg the
cow’s tail down to
the earth with hair-
pins. You have
seen your gardener
peg down carnation
stems? Very well;
she pegged down the cow’s tail just like
that yee:

The cow did not like it much at first, and
proposed to get up and walk away ; but she
was a good cow, and was easily persuaded to
sit still; and all through the winter Betsy
kept the end of the tail moist with warm
water, and took out the cow’s meals to her,
and often sat and read to her out of a
gardening book about carnations, to en-
courage her.

In the spring a number of tiny black-
and-fawn heads sprouted up through the

B