A few days later the separation took place; the butcher came and brought the money agreed upon. He was asked by Anton to take a draught of wine, and forced to listen to the extraordinary virtues of the cow. The father could not believe that “La Cordera” was not going to another master where she would be well treated and happy, and excited by I he wine and the weight of the money in his pocket, he continued In rxtol her domestic qualities, her milk-giving capacity, and strength tinder the yoke. The otner only smiled as he realized what destiny awaited her.
Pinin and Rosa, clasping one another`s hands, stood watching the enemy from a distance, and thinking sadly of the past, with its memories of “La Cordera,” and before she was finally led away they flung themselves upon her neck and covered it with kisses. The children followed some distance down the narrow road and formed a melancholy group with the indifferent driver and the reluctant cow. Finally they stopped and stood watching the animal as it slowly disappeared in the shadows of the bordering hedges.
Their foster mother was lost to them forever.
“Adios, Cordera!” cried Rosa, bursting into tears. “Adios, Cordera de mio alma.”
“Adios, Cordera,” repeated Pinin, his voice choked with emotion. “Adios,” answered sadly and for the last time the distant cowbell, and then its piteous lamentation was lost among other sounds of the night.
Pinin and Rosa
Early the following day, Pinin and Rosa went to the meadow “Somonte.” Never had its solitude been so oppressive; never had it seemed a desert waste until now.
Suddenly smoke appeared at the mouth of the tunnel, and then came the train. In a box-like car, pierced with narrow windows, could be seen the forms of closely packed cattle.
The children shook their fists at the train, more convinced than ever of the rapacity of the world.
“They are taking her to the slaughter!”
“Adios, Cordera!”
“Adios, Cordera!”
And Pinin and Rosa gazed with hatred upon the railway and the telegraph, those symbols of the cruel world which was taking away their companion of so many years for the satisfaction merely of its gluttonous appetite.
“Adios, Cordera!”
“Adios, Cordera!”
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