Going After The Cows

With the birds singing, the trees budding, and "the green grass growing

all around" as we use to sing in school, who would not love the country

and prefer the farm life to any other?

Wild Black-Eyed Susan 

We are glad that so much time can be spent out-of-doors while

going about the regular affairs of the day, thus combining pleasure

with work and adding good health for full measure.

I have a favorite way of doing this, for I have never lost my childhood

delight in going after the cows.  I still slip away from other things for the

sake of the walk through the pastures, down along the creek, and over the

hill to the farthest corner where the cows are usually found, 

as you can all bear witness.

Bringing home the cows is a childhood memory that oftenest recurs to me.

I think it is because the mind of a child is peculiarly attuned to the

beauties of nature, and the voices of the wildwood,

 and the impression they made was deep.

"To him who, in the love of nature, holds community with her

visible forms, she speaks a various language"* you know.

And I am sure old Mother Nature talked to me in all the languages

she knew when, as a child, I loitered along the cow paths, forgetful

of the milking time and stern parents waiting, while I gathered 

wildflowers, waded in the creek, watched the squirrels hastening

to their homes in the treetops, and listened to the

sleepy twitterings of birds.

The fourth installment of the "Little House" book series

told the adventures of Laura and her pioneer family

 living in a dugout on Plum Creek in Minnesota.
Pa later built the family a regular home to live in, which 
 is recounted in the chapter called, "The Wonderful House".

Wild strawberries grew in grassy nooks in springtime.

The wild plum thickets along the creek yielded their fruit about

the time of the first frost in the fall.  And all the time between, 

 there were ever varied, never failing delights

 along the cow paths of the old pasture.

Many a time, instead of me finding the cows, they, on their

 journey home, unurged, found me and took me home with them.

The voices of nature do not speak so plainly to us as we grow

older, but I think it is because, in our busy lives, we neglect

her until we grow out of sympathy. Our ears and eyes grow

 dull, and beauties are lost to us that we should still enjoy.

Life was not intended to be simply a round of work, no matter how

interesting and important that work may be. A moment's pause to

watch the glory of a sunrise or sunset is soul satisfying,

while a bird's song will set the steps to music all day long.

"Going After The Cows"

(April 1923)

Laura Ingalls Wilder

(1867-1957)

Prolific American writer and pioneer girl

An essay from the book,

"Little House In The Ozarks

A Laura Ingalls Wilder Sampler

The Rediscovered Writings"

Edited by Stephen W. Hines

Guideposts Edition

(1991)

* From "Thanatopsis" by William Cullen Bryant