Dad and the Milk Cow

I always thought my Dad was invincible.  Then one day, I saw a side of him that made me think maybe he was just like the rest of us.

It was during harvest time.  We all had come in from the fields and were resting a little while before we ate the lunch my Mother and sisters had prepared.  There were about six of the family working in the field and about ten or twelve hired hands working there, too.  So all of us field hands were out in the yard, resting and killing time til lunch.  Two of the younger hired hands saw we had a milk cow and her calf penned in the barn.  They went over and started poking the calf with some sticks that they picked up at the barn.  Of course the calf got upset and that upset the milk cow, who was her mother.  I mean that cow got really agitated.

Dad saw what was happening and walked over to tell the boys to quit.  As he got to the barn, he leaned over and looked through a crack.  At the same instant, that cow butted that part of the barn and knocked out a section of wall.  That section happened to be exactly where Dad was, peering into the interior  of the barn.  That section knocked him flat on his back and the cow ran over it and Dad on her way out.  The cow was bellowing and so was Dad.  The cow ran down into the pasture toward the woods.

As soon as Dad got his breath back, he picked up a pitch fork and started after the cow.  I didn't know what he planned to do with that pitch fork but I knew if he used it on the cow, Mother was going to be bellowing louder than the cow or Dad had done.  As he got into the woods, all we heard was a lot of thrashing and rustling.  We could see limbs moving and the high grass waving.  Then it got awful quiet.  And it stayed that way for a few minutes.

Then out of one of the trees down there, we heard Dad.  "Sammy," he hollered.  "Bring me my gun."  I didn't answer right away.  Then he hollered again for me to get his gun and bring it to him.  I was in a terrible fix.  I knew if I brought him the gun and he killed the cow, Mother would whip me bad for not telling her about the situation.  I knew if I didn't bring him the gun, he would punish me just as badly.

So I decided to do both.  I would get the gun and start for the woods with it, but I'd also make sure Mother knew what was going on.  I went into the house, got the gun, and then found Mother to tell her.

She took the gun from me and said not to worry.  She'd go down herself.  So there she went, just as calm as could be, walking into the pasture and then into the woods.  When she got down there, she saw Dad up in the tree, the pitch fork on the ground and the cow standing at the foot of the tree.  She simply spoke to the cow, grabbed the rope collar around her neck and then lead her back to the barn....all the way giving Dad trouble for even thinking about shooting her milk cow.  After all, that was her income---she sold the extra milk to neighbors.  Dad sheepishly came back into the yard and then into the house for lunch.  Far be it from any of us to even mention the episode.  We knew better.