Miscellanea. 483
" My missus asked she to go whoam quiet, and a'ter a bit she did go, a muttering all sorts.
" Come night, when mother did go out to milk, the cow hadn't hardly a drap, and mother she did vex and fret, and zed the boys had neglected the poor thing.
" Zoo she carr'd un out a armful o' grass herself, but when the morning come, 'twere oorse than ever, for ' he ' hadn't nat a drop in use.
" We done'd all we could for her, but it didn't make much odds as I seed, for the poor thing were bad for weeks.
"Well, Joe Bollard, he was a gardener to Maister Robert, he come'd down and took'd a drop o' ale wi' we, an' he talked a good bit about the cow, and said as he knowed ther were summat more than common about thic cow. I knowed his maning very well, but I didn't belave nothing o' that the7i. He twold we thet he had a cow once as were sarved just the same way, it were a wold (old) cow hisn, and a'ter a bit the poor beast died, and a'ter she were dead, when 'er were skinned and cut up and all that, they took ' his ' heart and stuck eleven pins in un, and burned un, and a'ter he were burned they sweep'd and drave'd it all up in the ashes. But next morning 'twere all abroad over the floor again. Ees, and they that hurted the poor wold beast were took bad and died.
" Zoo it went on,"for the cow were bad for weeks. Mother did carr' in the victuals, but the poor thing couldn't ate nothing. Well, Dorchester fair-time draw'd on and the cow died, and the same morning I seed Joe Bollard over the gate and I holla'd to un and twold un o' it, and I zed : ' Joe, if you'll come and do thic burning job for I, same as thee did for t'other cow, I'll gie thee the skin or the woU beast if ee be a-minded.'
" Zoo when he said as how he 'ould, I gathered a lot o' firewood in the back-house chimley and I made the nails, as I've made ma?iy for such work. And Joe, he'd been in and skinned the beast and took out the heart and show'd it up to winder to I, and put it up in ' loft ' [wooden floor] 'cause er mustn't never touch ground. And I went and bound the heart wi' wire to the two nails I'd a made, and hanged en up in chimley, and darkened up the winders wi' sackbags as nobody shouldn't see in. But we couldn't foller on wi' nothing till 'twere 9 o'clock, 'cause the moon were late o' getting up, an' us was bound to wait the right time.
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