Moo Cow Tales
9781465678553
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
There was once a little calf who was always unhappy. He had a dear mother and two nice little white cousins, with brown ears, and a beautiful field to live in, quite full of buttercups and daisies, and cow-parsley, which little calves mustn’t eat because it makes them ill, and yet he wasn’t happy. It was really because all the other cows and calves could not understand him. And this was why: this little calf loved everything that was red, and, of course, you know that cows and bulls generally hate red things. Now the field next to the cows’ field was a cornfield, and among the corn there were a great many scarlet poppies. The little calf thought that he had never seen anything so beautiful as these red flowers, and he always longed to get into the cornfield and kiss the poppies and tell them how much he loved them. All day long he used to stand with his little face pressed against the hedge, looking into the cornfield, and when the farmer’s boy brought a bucket of food for the little calves, this little calf let his cousins eat it all up and stood gazing at his darling poppies. One day he found a gap in the hedge, just big enough for a little calf to squeeze through, and in a twinkling he was through the hole and among his dear flowers. He rolled about in the corn and kissed the poppies and said: “Dear little bright flowers, I wish you would come into my field and live there with me,” but the flowers did not speak to him. Then he got up and wandered all over the field, talking to all the poppies, until at last he stopped before the largest and reddest poppy of all. “How beautiful you are!” he said. “Can’t you speak to me?” and the tears came into his brown eyes because none of the poppies seemed to love him. “Yes,” said the poppy, “I can speak to you. What do you want me to say, and why are you crying? Be careful not to drop your tears on me, because they are warm and would wither my petals.” “I only wanted to tell you that I love you and want you to come and live with me in my field,” said the little bull-calf.
