A Good Licking

We was pretty good kids most of the time, but occasionally we'd get side tracked and forget just what Mom or Dad had told us to do and not to do or when to be there. If they hadn't made a specific statement on a subject we had to determine for ourselves if it was right or wrong. For instance, about riding other peoples calves that were grazing in a nearby pasture. This required several boys to make it work properly. We couldn't see nothing wrong with it. Didn't look like it hurt them critters any to me. We just drove them over to the nearest corner and while most of the guys was keeping them hemmed in, one or two of us would charge into the bunch and grab one around the neck and hold it while somebody else jumped on its back, then it'd go bucking across the pasture. Sometimes we could ride it, sometimes it'd buck us off Then we'd corner them again to repeat the process. This was great sport unless the owner came along.

One time Clare Laub caught us riding his calves. We saw him coming and took off at top speed, every kid for his self. Kind of like those old time sword fighters when they saw they were getting whipped, it was a matter of foot racing, anybody that was outrun got his head lopped off. So you can understand that Clare had a hard time overtaking us even if he did have long legs.

Keith was the littlest and had short legs and even though he worked them to top capacity he just couldn't go fast enough. Him and Lewis was the drags of the bunch and old Clare collared Keith just as I flew over the pasture fence. There was a pang of remorse as I realized my little brother was a casualty, but there was nothing I could do about it. Besides, I was just getting my second wind and that patch of brush was still 150 yards to the forefront.

When I heard Clare's big mean voice yelling out terrible things, I knew he must be a real bad man. "I wonder what he'll do to my little brother? Wish he'd caught one of them Hiatt kids instead. Wouldn't feel so bad for them. They wasn't very good calf riders anyway and they wasn't near as much fun to have around as my little brother, Keith."

A couple hours later when we got home we were in anguish as to how we're going to break the sad news to Mom about Keith getting caught. But when we walked into the house, there he sat, licking the mixing bowl from the cake Mom had just put in the oven. We didn't feel near so sorry for him then.