Page:Zodiac stories by Blanche Mary Channing.pdf/84

Rh black face, and was willing to mount on his broad shoulder. The nurse followed laughing and protesting, as he led the way, down the flower-walk, past the lotus-pond, where the pond lilies basked in the sun, each on its pad; then through a gate, and into the stable-yard.

The nurse exclaimed discontentedly as she drew her cotton skirts higher about her ankles, and picked her way across the muddy stones, but Tophra rode high and dry on the herdsman's shoulder, her small golden shoes sparkling in the sun, and Samis was used to treading anywhere on his bare feet.

"Behold!" he said proudly, as they entered the cow-house and stopped before the largest stall.

Tophra leaned forward to look.

There in the straw lay a beautiful white cow, and beside her, a tiny calf, black as jet but for a three-cornered white spot on its forehead.