“‘Don’t you think kickin’ is too good for a man like that, John?’ Kate asks. “‘Well, I’d like to have it to do,’ I answers. ‘Oh! just you wait till I get a chance, and if I don’t----’ “There was an awful scream in the mow--an unearthly scream. A great, black thing came tumblin’ out of the hayhole into the stable, lettin’ out fearful groans all the time. I couldn’t see it very plain and didn’t stop to investigate. I bumped into Kate as she was pilin’ into the kitchen. We set down a minute to get our breath. Then I put my head out of the door. For a piece all was quiet. Then a faint call come from the barn. She thot maybe it was a tramp had fallen down the hayhole. I wanted to go alone and see, but Kate wouldn’t hear of it. She insisted on goin’ with me and takin’ a gun and a lantern. “I opened the stable door, peeped in and said, ‘Who’s there?’ “The answer was a moan and, ‘Is that you, John? Help!’ “There Abraham Buttenberger lay on a little pile of hay at the back of the stable, writhin’ and moanin’. “‘I always knew it,’ he groaned. ‘I always told you they talked on Christmas Eve. But why did you ever get me to try and hear them? See what you’ve led me to. Look at me layin’ here with a broken leg and see what you’ve done. It was the white John mule--I know his voice. T’other was the brindle cow.’ “‘Look out for the mule! Look out!’ he cried, as we carried him out of the stable and put him on a wheelbarrow. “That’s the way he took on. When we’d got him into the house I went up to town for a doctor. I attended him that night. The next day after he’d had breakfast, he set up in bed and says to me: ‘John, I’ve heard people laugh about the sayin’ that the cattle talk on Christmas Eve. I’ve heard you make fun of the idee. But you’d never laugh at it again if you heard what I did last night; if you’d had a mule heapin’ coals of fire on your head. And that cow! Oh, it’s awful to have the very animals on the farm down on you like that.’ “‘What did they say?’ says I. “‘Say!’ he answers. ‘What didn’t they say? I’ll never have no peace behind that John mule again.’ “The old man was quiet a spell. Then he says, ‘John, you can have my dotter, my only dotter.’ “And he begin to moan. “Missus and I were married at home that Christmas just fifteen years ago. We never explained it to Abraham. There was no particular use in it. We couldn’t ’a’ convinced him anyway. Why, do you know he was so set on makin’ up all around that he insisted that the brindle cow and the white mule know all about it. The ceremony was performed in the kitchen and them two knowin’ beasts was hitched to the window so they could look in. He was bound to appease ’em.” The Teacher chuckled softly as he finished his narration. The Storekeeper bit the legs off a candy ostrich. “It do beat all!” he exclaimed.