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misstep now and again. Every man has a weakness. I’d be flimsy if I held a grudge against Haskell Gamp.” Ben sighed. “Forgiveness heals a hurt better than iodine or thread.”
    The kindly way he said it made me respect Benjamin Franklin Tanner all the more.
    Leading Daisy, we rounded a corner of Ben’s big cow barn. There he stood. Beowolf, a black-and-white Holstein bull. A giant. Ben looked at him with pride, then at me, and bent a slow grin.
    “I’ll never forget that Sunday afternoon,” he said. “You were maybe half as high as now. You stood here with your folks, and so did our preacher and his wife, Reverend Hazeltine and Mrs.”
    “I don’t recall.”
    Ben laughed. “Well, I do. Bess mentioned it recent. We were all standing right here, admiring Beowolf, when he took a big breath and roared one mighty bellow. Mrs. Hazeltine said … 
My, what a pair of lungs
. And you, young Robert, pointed at his hinder, and said … 
Those aren’t lungs. Them are his
 … and your ma muffled your mouth not a second too soon.”
    I felt my face redden. “Did I say that? If so, I certain am sorry.”
    Ben rested a hand on my shoulder. “No need. There’s nothing evil or dirty about nature. What made it all so amusing was the fact that your father attempted a smile. And that was a feat he’d perform about once a decade.” Ben sighed. “I miss Haven. Always a good steady neighbor. All salt and no pepper.”
    I couldn’t say anything. When my father died,it was as though God had ripped the sun from out of my sky. I become a lantern with no light.
    “Bess and I were never blessed with children. Now that we’re aging into ancient, Rob, we sort of think of you as ours. Not that I’d ever try to replace your father. No one could replace Haven Peck. But both Bess and I feel close to you and your folks.”
    “We feel likewise.”
    Daisy muttered a soft
moo
.
    “Smell him, Daisy,” Ben said to our cow. “Help yourself to a whiff of my bull.”
    “You smell too, Beowolf,” I said hopefully. “It’s spring.”
    Walking behind her, Ben lifted Daisy’s tail, smelled her, and touched her. Then he shook his head.
    “Little chance,” he told me. “No heat. She’s like winter. Cold enough to freeze the balls off a pool table. It’s June, boy. But for that cow of yourn, it’s the dark of December.”
    Beowolf didn’t even glance our way.
    Ben pointed at his bull. “That old Romeo knows more than you, me, and Daisy all put together. We got a pair of disinterested parties, Rob. My advice to you is to end her.” Kneeling, he felt her udder. “Empty as a Monday church.”
    “What’ll I do with her?”
    “For your heart’s sake, turn her out into your meadow for a spell. Let her graze, fatten, and enjoy the summer. But by autumn, best you not waste even one wisp of hay to board her all winter. You can’t afford that. Daisy will never again lactate. But don’t delay, Robert. Best you sell her while she’s still alive. If she dies, you’ll have naught.”
    “Sell her? Who’d buy a dry cow? What would she be good for?”
    “Dog meat.”
    I closed my eyes. “No. I can’t.”
    “Wake up, boy. Yes, you can because you’ll have to do just that, and no other. There isn’t a choosing. Only an end. Daisy’s had a good life among you Pecks. Now, young man, best be growed-up enough to face what’s so. These are hard truths they don’t teach you in school. Like it or no, it’s what I do with my old cows. You’ll get five dollars for her and no more.”
    “How would I go about selling her?”
    “Go to Clay Sander. Your pa killed his hogs for many a year. Clay’ll handle it.”
    While I was leading Daisy back to our place, I stopped on the ridge that separated the Tanner property from ours. From up here, I could breathe air so fresh that I could almost drink it, and lookdown to our house and barn. We had Solomon no longer. And soon, there’d be no Daisy.
    My hand touched her warm body on the right