Four Cows

It was nearly time for dawn. Pot had been disturbed a bit earlier through the night by the sounds coming from his yard but had managed to sleep through most of it. When he finally got up and looked through his hall window, he saw a figure in his yard standing on a wide ladder. He immediately rushed out and saw that the figure was his son Phal.

“What’re you upto now, Phal?” Pot yelled.

“Nothin’,” Pa.”

Pot was immediately suspicious. He saw his main barn door was wide open so he rushed in there and saw all of his four cows were missing! Running out, he growled “What chu done to my cows, boy? Have you stolen them?!”

Phal replied, “Nothin’ Pa. I don’t steal cows. And certainly not from my own father.”

He saw Phal’s brothers Pit and Pat standing beside the ladder next to the fence. Pol must be on the other side. Phal was the cunning one and the eldest one. He must have tricked his younger brothers into lifting the cows over the fence using the ladder and moving them to the other side.

“You haven’t been workin’ at this long, boy. I’m getting my cows from the other side.”

Pot ran over to the gate in the fence and moved to where he could see the tip of the ladder jutting over the wall. Pol was indeed standing outside there, next to the fence. But, there were no cows.

“Where’re my cows, Pol? Did your brother Phal sell ‘em to somebody?”

Pol looked confused. “Cows? Don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no cows, Pa. Phal just tole me to stand here.”

So Phal had got his brothers to lie for him --- or this one at least, anyway. Phal’s younger brothers were simple country boys. They weren’t given over to evil plots but Pot knew his son Phal better than any of them. Phal had always hated working on the farm and had preferred to get himself a real edjumacation. He’d gone off to work in the city, leaving his family behind, and only visited the farm during holidays. Pot knew that Phal was smart enough to manipulate his brothers into pulling off something like this. The boy was always trying to make a quick buck.

Now, he had no idea where the cows could be. The boy couldn’t have had enough time to move the animals to one of the neighbouring farms but maybe he had started earlier than Pot thought. Even if Phal had managed to get them to one of the nearby farms he knew his neighbours wouldn’t hide them willingly since they were good friends of his. But he had to check them to be sure. Maybe the boy had hidden them there without the farmer knowing it.

Pot collected his boys together. He muttered, “Y’all are comin’ with me. I’m not leavin’ any of you alone to get up to more tricks. ‘Specially not you Phal.”

Pot walked quickly to the farms on either side of his own. They were not far --- just two or three kilometres on either side. He went first to Jim on his left. He knocked on the man’s front door, feeling guilty about troubling him this early in the morning. He probably hadn’t even had breakfast yet. A large, heavyset man opened the door.

“Yur, Pot?” he drawled.

“Need to check yer barn, Jim. This lousy son of mine done taken my cows and I got no idea where they are now.”

“And chu think I’d let him hide them in my barn?” Jim asked, sounding almost hurt.

“You may not know he’s kept them there,” Pot pointed out.

“Be mah guest. Have yerself a looksee.”

Pot opened the doors and peered in. Unfortunately, he saw nothing he recognized.

Disappointed, he thanked Jim and walked over to Bob’s farm on his right. The scenario went almost exactly the same way. Pot squinted his eyes and looked at Phal.

“Damn, boy, what chu done? I need to milk them cows soon. They ain’t been milked for a while now an’ if I don’t milk ‘em long enough, they’ll be runnin’ out of milk!”

“I’m telling you, Pa, that I haven’t stolen any cows. Who here is going to buy your cows from me?”

“No one here, sho’ ’nuff but maybe you made some deal with some of your city friends. I know you better than you know yerself. Maybe you done sold ‘em off for meat!”

Pot was suddenly afraid that was what had happened. A good portion of his income came from the milk he sold from those cows and buying four new cows would be too expensive right now.

“If you done killed my cows, I’ll be taking you to court! Hell, I’ll disown you!”

“I’m hurt you think so, Pa,” Phal said, a sad tone entering his voice. But Pot knew all his son’s tricks. He wasn’t going to be fooled by any change in tone. A sudden thought struck him. There weren’t any more farms for several miles around but maybe his son had them tethered somewhere on the nearby grazing fields. He decided to make some checks of the fields near his house.

Gathering his boys, he walked to the nearest one and saw some cattle grazing there that had a brown skin that looked similar to his cows. “Got you, now, boy. Thought you could hide ‘em here, eh?”

“Those are somebody’s steers, Pa.”

Upon closer inspection, Pot found this to be true. A few more desperate rounds of the grazing fields turned up nothing else. After they had finished their circuit of the fields, Pot finally gave up. There were no more ideas coming forth and he was at wit’s end. As they slowly returned home,

Pot said with malice, “Look like you’ve won for now, Phal. But don’t think I’ve given up all hope. Oh no! I’ll get to bottom of this if it kills me!”

Phal said nothing then but, as they came through the gates of the farm, he muttered, “Maybe you should check inside the old unused barn”.

Pot paused for a second, and then, with mounting suspicion, headed that way. As he opened the doors, he saw his four cows inside, peacefully grazing on some grass. After a few moments quiet introspection, he asked softly,

“Why’d you do this, boy? No quick buck to be made doin’ this. What chu tryin’ to prove?”

“I guess was trying to prove to you how much you distrust me, Pa. As soon as you saw that open barn door this morning, you automatically assumed I was trying to steal from you. You have a real poor opinion of me just ‘cause I work in the city. I guess, in some way, I did hoodwink you today but only to prove my point. I think we could have a better relationship if you change your opinion of me, Pa.”

Pot paused in thought. The boy had a point. He’d been real quick to see Phal as a villain today. “Maybe I will, boy. Maybe I will...”