Page:Hugh Pendexter--Tiberius Smith.djvu/186

 "Poor Bilger failed to appreciate how the little, wobbly one's presence in the paddock could make any difference and tried to say so, but Tib cut him short. 'While I would be the last man in Vermont to separate parent from child,' he declared, 'yet the child in this case cannot presume upon its mother's legal status to claim a day in court. The child is an orphan. Legally its mother is dead, or rather, has, by those subtle evolutions in law, been transformed into a will. She cannot even claim to be in loco parentis. She is no longer a cow; she is a document. She can have no offspring.^

"‘Then at least the calf belongs to the creditors,' cried Mr. Remmy, quickly. 'For having no parent, no owner, it is a stray, the property of the first to claim it.'

"‘Not by a blamed sight—' began Hiram.

"‘Hesitate a moment,' commanded Tib. 'While, an orphan, yet its coming into the world affects the validity of the will. The will, as originally drawn, consisted of three cows, a steer, and two horses. An erasure in that instrument, say the death of any clause, would render the instrument null and void. Any tampering with a will after the testator's signature has been affixed, or after his death, such as writing in another clause, would invalidate it. The calf is an interpolation. While a codicil can be set aside without rendering inoperative the body of the