This
occurrence took place early las' summer. Old Bill hisself is too
close-mouthed to let on about it, but when I was over there the other
day, arter givin' Lizzy Tompkins her music-lesson, I got talkin' with
her mother, and one thing led to another, and finally I got the whole
story outer her. Old Bill had a cow that they called 'Old Jinnie.' She
was always mischeevous, but last year she'd been wusser'n ever. She'd
git out of the barn nights, and knock down fences, and tramp down flower
gardens, and everybody said she wuz a pesky noosance. One night old Bill
and his family wuz seated 'round the centre table in the sittin'-room.
There wuz Mary, his wife; and George, his oldest boy, a young fellow
about eighteen; Tommy, who is a ten-year-older, and little Lizzy, who is
about eight. George wuz readin' somethin' out of a paper to 'em, when
they heerd a-runnin' and a-jumpin', and old Bill said, 'That varmint's
got out of the barn and is rampagin' 'round agin,' The winder curt'ins
wuz up, and old Jinnie must 'a' seed the light, for she run pell-mell
agin the house, and drove her horns through the winder, smashin' four
panes.
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