XIVOBLIGING A LADY
OldMr. Crow had said that the Muley Cow and Mistah Mule were sure to meet, if Mistah Mule stayed at Farmer Green’s place. And they did. One day Mistah Mule was pulling at a choice clump of clover, in the pasture, when an elderly dame thrust her head over the stone wall near-by, stared at him for a few seconds, swallowed her cud, and spoke.
“Good morning!” she called out. “Unless I’m mistaken, you’re the person they’re all talking about. You’re Mistah Mule.”
“Yes’m!” Mistah Mule mumbled.
“Would you be so kind as to turn around for a moment?” the old lady asked. “I’m the Muley Cow and I’d like to see your tail.”
“Yes’m!” Mistah Mule repeated, as he wheeled about.
“That will do, thank you!” the Muley Cow told him presently. “I wanted to look at your tail. Old Mr. Crow told me it was a good deal like my own.”
“Yes’m!” said Mistah Mule.
“So you agree with Mr. Crow!” exclaimed the Muley Cow quickly.
“No’m!”
“I’m glad to hear you say that,” the Muley Cow replied. “Your tail isnotlike mine. It has no beautiful curl dangling at the end of it, like this one of mine.”
Mistah Mule walked up to the stone wall and laughed in his strange fashion.
“That ole Crow, he try to make troublefor me an’ you,” he informed the Muley Cow. “He say for me to tell you our tails is like enough to be twins. But I says, that ole black scamp better do his errands his own self. I has seen too many of his folkses down South, where I comes from, to do what he tell me. I a-goin’ do just what hedon’ttell me!”
“Well! Well!” cried the Muley Cow. “You’re a person of some sense, after all. You surprise me, sir. I had a very poor opinion of you, when I heard that you had kicked Farmer Green.”
Mistah Mule looked very uneasy.
“I ain’t goin’ to do that no more,” he said. And he hung his head.
“You sent Johnnie Green flying, the first time he rode you,” the Muley Cow went on. “I hope you won’t do that again, either.”
“No’m!” Mistah Mule murmured.
“You see, ma’am, I’se never lived ’mong kind people before. They certainly has treated me fine on this farm.”
“I’m delighted to have met you—delighted!” cried the Muley Cow. “I shall tell all my friends that you’re going to be on your best behavior from this time on.”
“Yes’m!” said Mistah Mule. “So long as they doesn’t ask me to work!”
The Muley Cow smiled. She thought that was just one of Mistah Mule’s jokes.