If it hadn't been for Johnnie Green there's no knowing how long the Muley Cow would have had to wear the wooden about her neck. Somehow Johnnie Green guessed that she didn't like it. So he teased his father to take the poke off her. And at last Farmer Green consented.  
"We'll try her without it," he said. "We'll see how she behaves. We'll see if she has learned a lesson."
 
It was like a holiday for the Muley Cow when she went into the pasture without the heavy poke. For all her advanced age, she kicked up her heels and clumsily over the hillside, quite like a .
 
For just a moment or two she was to jump the fence, she felt so gay. But luckily she remembered, before it was too late, that if she left the pasture she would probably have to wear the poke all the rest of that summer. And she it was worth her while to behave herself.
 
So she stopped running—for that was just a temptation to jump; and she began to pull at choice of clover with her long tongue. Then, feeling thirsty, she went to the , where it flowed into the mill pond, to get a drink.
 
She splashed down into the water, not caring at all because she wet her feet. In fact, she liked the feeling of the cool water. She had stuck her nose into the brook and had drunk several great swallows when a squeaky sort of voice cried, "Stop that!"
 
The Muley Cow lifted her head and stared all around, while drops of water off her and fell back into the stream.
 
At first she couldn't see anybody. And then the voice called again, "Stop that! You'll drain our pond dry if you drin............