As the Slide Raft stopped, the Soft-Voiced Cow fell over on her side and
closed her eyes.
Gran’pa jumped from the raft and pulled it into shore, while the Tiptoe
Brothers filled their hats with water which they dashed over the head of
the Soft-Voiced Cow.
“She has fainted!” Gran’ma said.
“Let’s get her ashore!” Johnny cried. “Everybody take hold!”
It took a lot of pulling and tugging, but finally they got the
Soft-Voiced Cow up the bank and pulled grass for a pillow.
“I wish I had my smelling salts!” cried Gran’ma.
The water did not seem to help the Soft-Voiced Cow, and she rolled her
eyes in an alarming manner.
“She may start kicking any minute!” Gran’pa warned. “Don’t get too close
to her heels! I had a cow that acted the same way once!”
Sure enough, the Soft-Voiced Cow did begin kicking, and as they drew
away from her she turned her head towards Gran’ma with a pathetic look
in her eyes.
“I’m going to hold her head!” cried Gran’ma, forgetting in her anxiety
that her friend was only a Cow.
Gran’ma’s soft hand smoothed the Soft-Voiced Cow’s forehead, and the
Cow, seeming to feel Gran’ma’s affection, placed one of her front feet
on Gran’ma’s lap. Gran’ma sat holding the Cow’s foot and smoothing her
brow, meanwhile talking to her in a gentle, soothing manner.
The others, who stood by watching, had to brush the tears from their
eyes.
“Why not puff your magic powder on her?” Janey cried to the Chief of
Detectives.
“It will only cure magic!” cried that good little man as he took the
tiny bellows from his pocket.
Johnny jumped forward and blew a generous puff upon the Soft-Voiced
Cow’s head.
The Soft-Voiced Cow seemed to shrink in size and turned a different
color.
“Now, Mister! You _HAVE_ done it!” Janey cried as she stamped her foot
at Johnny.
Johnny stood as if frozen, watching the Soft-Voiced Cow.
“She’s got a HAND!” Gran’ma cried excitedly. “Two of them!”
As the others drew closer they saw that their friend, the Soft-Voiced
Cow, was turning into a woman.
The Tiptoe Brothers uttered glad cries, and the Dancing Master threw his
arms about the woman.
“My wife!” he cried as he kissed her.
“It’s Jenny!” cried the Chief of Detectives, turning a radiant face to
Gran’pa.
“There! You see?” Johnny said, as he and Janey turned their backs on the
reunited pair. “If the magic wire could not make the Soft-Voiced Cow
grow taller it was because she already had been magicked. So I
remembered that the powder cured magic, and there you are!
[Illustration]
“Johnny, you’re a dear!” Janey answered, as she gave him a great hug.
“You always know just what to do, all the time!”
“Ah, shucks!” Johnny replied. “I did it without much thinking!”
“Well, you did it, anyway!” his sister insisted. “To think she was a
lady all this time and we did not know it!”
“She was a very ladylike Cow, at least!” said Johnny.
Mr. and Mrs. Tiptoe came up to Johnny and Janey and thanked them for
what they had done.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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