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Mrs. Whipple was scared sick of bulls; she had heard awful stories about how they followed on quietly enough, and then suddenly pitched on with a bellow and pawed and gored a body to pieces. Any second now that black monster would come down on Him, my God, He’d never have sense enough to run.

She mustn’t make a sound nor a move; she mustn’t get the bull started. The bull heaved his head aside and horned the air at a fly. Her voice burst out of her in a shriek, and she screamed at Him to come on, for God’s sake. He didn’t seem to hear her clamor, but kept on twirling His switch and limping on, and the bull lumbered along behind him as gently as a calf. Mrs. Whipple stopped calling and ran towards the house, praying under her breath: “Lord, don’t let anything happen to Him. Lord, you knowpeople will say we oughtn’t to have sent Him. You knowthey’ll say we didn’t take care of Him. Oh, get Him home, safe home, safe home, and I’ll look out for Him better! Amen. “

She watched from the window while He led the beast in, and tied him up in the barn. It was no use trying to keep up, Mrs. Whipple couldn’t bear another thing. She sat down and rocked and cried with her apron over her head.

From year to year the Whipples were growing poorer and poorer. The place just seemed to run down of itself, no matter how hard they worked. “We’re losing our hold,” said Mrs. Whipple. “Why can’t we do like other people
and watch for our best chances? They’ll be calling us poor white trash next. “

“When I get to be sixteen I’m going to leave,” said Adna. “I’m going to get a job in Powell’s grocery store. There’s money in that. No more farm for me. “

“I’m going to be a schoolteacher,” said Emly. “But I’ve got to finish the eighth grade, anyhow. Then I can live in town. I don’t see any chances here. “

“Emly takes after my family,” said Mrs. Whipple. “Ambitious every last one of them, and they don’t take second place for anybody”

When fall came Emly got a chance to wait on table in the railroad eating-house in the town near by, and it seemed such a shame not to take it when the wages were good and she could get her food too, that Mrs. Whipple decided to let her take it, and not bother with school until the next session. “You’ve got plenty of time,” she said. “You’re young and smart as a whip. “

With Adna gone too, Mr. Whipple tried to run the farm with just Him to help. He seemed to get along fine, doing His work and part of Adna’s without noticing it. They did well enough until Christmas time, when one morning He slipped on the ice coming up from the barn. Instead of getting up He thrashed round and round, and when Mr. Whipple got to Him, He was having some sort of fit.

They brought Him inside and tried to make Him sit up, but He blubbered and rolled, so they put Him to bed and Mr. Whipple rode to town for the doctor. All the way there and back he worried about where the money was to come from: it sure did look like he had about all the troubles he could carry.

From then on He stayed in bed. His legs swelled up double their size, and the fits kept coming back. After four months, the doctor said, “It’s no use, I think you’d better put Him in the County Home for treatment right away. I’ll see about it for you. He’ll have good care there and be off your hands. “

“We don’t begrudge Him any care, and I won’t let Him out of my sight,” said Mrs. Whipple. “I won’t have it said I sent my sick child off among strangers. “