Aunt Charlotte's book.
When Barrel-Head was five or six years old, she was terribly aggravating. she would "hang-out" at night, would not even come home to her wobbly calf, so someone had to go to the pasture and drive her up. One evening Mother sent the two Indian boys to the river pasture for the cow. They were gone a long time and it was as dark as a cloudy night could possibly be before we heard the sound of the bell, it must have been fully a mile away, clang, clang, clang we could hear it coming.Mother was annoyed, she had told the boys time enough that they were never to run the cows. Old Barrel-Head's bell was coming like mad though the darkness. She was not following the road through the timber either. We could be sure of that, for the road followed a crooked, round about way. She seemed to be coming straight across the field of ripening grain. But what fury could possibly be at the heels of the old cow to inspire such unbelievable speed. Mother listened and was alarmed, then she called Father then the rest of the family gathered on the porch to be ready for whatever emergency traveled with Barrel-Head, whatever it was, it was traveling fast. The gate stood open but no detour was made for it. The ten rail fence was cleared with one mighty leap and on came the apparently terrified beast. We could hear her coming through the shrubbery and straight through Mother's flower beds toward the house. It was so dark that we were unable to see even the outline of the cow, so our eyes told us nothing, then one breath taking clatter and we ceased to believe even our ears. The banging, clanging bell made straight for the porch, where we all stood and dove under it. Our house stood a scant two feet from the ground. We simply could not believe it and yet, there was the bumping and thumping against the sills. A hen and her flock of small chickens ran Squawking in every direction and added their part to the general commotion.After a few minutes things seemed to quiet down again, but now and then we could hear a tinkle from the cow bell it undoubtedly came from under our house. Father got a pine torch and held it to the opening and got down on his knees and looked everywhere. Jasper would have crawled under the house, but Mother was afraid and would not let him. It might have been a panther that had chased Barrel-Head home. Whatever it was, it was unquestionably something fearful. What else would have caused a big, old Spanish cow to crawl under a house that stood a scant two feet above the ground. Then Father thought about the Indian boys. They had been gone a long while, perhaps something had happened to them. He took his gun and went to look for them. The rest of us went into the house and waited. After a bit, we heard them coming, then we heard Father say: "Now, you young scalawags put that cow in the barn and then I want you to crawl under the house and take that bell off of the dog." Old Tige was fairly green-eyed when they dragged him out. As long as he lived, the faintest tinkle of an unattached cow bell was enough to send him scurrying pell-mell to any haven that happened to be handy.
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