Part 1

Once there was a little boy. Now he was a very silly little boy, so silly that he was called Silly Will. He had an idea that he was tremendously smart and that he could quite well get along by himself in this world. This foolish idea made him do and say all sorts of silly things which led to all sorts of terrible happenings as this story will show.

One day he went out walking. He walked down the road until he met a little girl. The little girl was crying.

“What’s the matter with you?” asked Silly Will.

“Oh!” sobbed the little girl, “our cow has died and I don’t know what we shall do. I don’t know how we can get along without her milk and everything. We depended on her so!”

“Depended on a cow!” cried Silly Will. “Whoever heard of such a thing! I’ve often seen that stupid old cow of yours. Clumsy, lumbering thing! Cows are no good! I wouldn’t depend on any animal, not I! It wouldn’t matter to me if all the cows in the world died!” And Silly Will strutted off down the road.

The little girl looked after him with astonishment. “I just wish no cow would ever give that silly boy anything!” she thought.

Before long he met an old woman. The old woman was crying too.

“What’s the matter with you?” asked Silly Will.

“Oh!” cried the old woman wringing her hands. “Our sheep has fallen over a cliff and broken its legs and it’s going to die. I don’t know how we shall get along without her wool for spinning. We depended so much on her!”

“Depended on a sheep!” cried Silly Will. “Whoever heard of such a thing! I’ve often heard your stupid old sheep bleating. Sheep are no good. I wouldn’t depend on any animal, not I! It wouldn’t matter to me if all the sheep in the world died!” And Silly Will strutted off down the road feeling very smart.

The old woman looked after him greatly surprised. “Silly little boy!” she thought. “He little knows! I just wish no sheep would give him anything!”

Then before long Silly Will met a man. The man was sitting beside the road with his face in his hands.

“What’s the matter with you?” asked Silly Will.

The man looked up. “Oh, our horse has died!” he sighed dolefully, “and I don’t know how we can get along without him to plow for us now that it’s seeding time. And there’s not much use getting in the seeds anyway without a horse to carry the grain to market when it’s ripe. We depended so on our horse!”

“Depended on a horse!” cried Silly Will. “Whoever heard of such a thing! First I meet a little girl who says she depended on a cow for food: then I meet an old woman who says she depended on a sheep for clothes. And here is a man who says he depends on a horse to work and to carry for him! As for me, I depend on no animal, not I! It wouldn’t matter to me if there were no animals in the world. They needn’t give me anything! I wish they wouldn’t!”

The man looked at him greatly amazed. “Silly little boy!” he said. “I hope your silly wish will come true. How little you understand! I just wish tonight all the animal kingdom would leave you and then perhaps you would understand a little!” But Silly Will walked home feeling very smart, for he didn’t understand. Silly people never do understand!

Now that night a strange thing happened to Silly Will. I can’t explain how or why it happened. But in the middle of the night, all the animals did leave Silly Will. Not only the cow and the sheep and the horse but all the animal kingdom! He was sound asleep in his flannel nightgown snuggled under warm wool blankets. Suddenly he felt a jerk. What was happening? He sat up in bed just in time to see his blankets whisk off him and disappear. He looked down. His night shirt was gone! He heard a faint sound almost like the bleating of the old woman’s sheep. “Ba-ba-a-a I take back my wool!”

Then he was aware that something queer had happened to his mattress. It was just an empty bag of ticking. He heard a faint sound almost like the neighing of the man’s horse who had died. “Whey-ey-ey, I take back my hair!”

He reached for his pillow. It too was an empty sack.

“Hh-ss-s-hh” hissed a faint sound almost like a goose. “I take back my feathers!”

“Whatever is happening?” screamed Silly Will. “Let me get a light.” He found a match and struck it, but his candlestick was empty. “Ba-a-moo-oo” said some faint voices. “I take back my fat!”

By this time Silly Will was thoroughly frightened and shivering with cold besides.

“I’d better get dressed,” he thought, and groped his way to the chair where he had left his clothes. He could find only his cotton underwaist and his cotton shirt. His wool undershirt and drawers, his trousers and stockings, and his silk necktie were gone. And so were his leather shoes. Just the lacings lay on the floor. “Mooooo” he seemed to hear a faint sound almost like the little girl’s cow he had made fun of in the afternoon. “I take back my hide.”

He put on the few cotton clothes that were left, but there were no buttons to hold them together. “Moooooo,” he heard a faint voice say. “I take back my bones.”

Terrified he ran to the closet to see what more he could find. “I’ll surely freeze,” he thought as he lighted another match. “I’ll slip on my coat and get into bed.” But his warm coat with the fur collar was gone, too. “Chee, chee, chee,” he seemed to hear a faint sound almost like the squirrel he was fond of frightening. “I take back my skin!”

But he did find some cotton stockings and some old overalls. These he put on relieved to find they had metal buttons. Then poor Silly Will crawled back to bed wearing his cotton clothes and waited for morning to come. He didn’t sleep much for the wire spring cut into him. He was cold, too.

As soon as it was light he hunted around for more clothes. He found some straw bed-room slippers. His rubbers too were there and he put them on over his slippers. Then he ran downstairs to get something to eat.

“Anyway,” he thought, “those old animals can’t get me when it comes to eating. I never did care much about meat.”

The pantry door squeaked as he opened it. It sounded for all the world like a far away barnyard—hens, cows, and pigs. He looked around. No milk, no eggs, no bacon! “Bread and butter will do me,” he thought.

But the butter had gone too! He opened the bread box. The bread was still there! He almost wept from relief. By hunting around he found a good deal to eat. Cocoa made with water instead of milk was pretty good. Then there were crackers and apples. His oatmeal wasn’t very good without milk or butter. But he ate it. He knew he would have plenty of vegetables and fruits and cereals.

And the day was warm enough so that he didn’t mind his cotton clothes. But his feet did hurt him. He wondered about wooden shoes and thought he would try to make some.

He was a little worried too about his bed. He hunted around in the house until he found two cotton comforters. One he put under his sheet in place of his mattress and one on top in place of his blankets. So, on the whole, he thought, he could manage to get along.

Poor little Silly Will! He had never before thought how much the animals did for him. Once in a while he would think of the little girl and the old woman and the man he had met that afternoon. But not for long. And he never remembered that some time winter would come. But long before that time came, Silly Will had got himself into still more trouble. For even now he didn’t understand!

Part 2

From this time on nothing went well with Silly Will. When he had eaten the vegetables he had in the house he walked over to a gardener who lived nearby. He wanted to get potatoes and other supplies for the winter. To his horror he found everything drooping and wilted and withered. “What’s the matter with the vegetables, gardener?” asked Silly Will.

“A frost,” sighed the gardener. “It’s killed all the potatoes. I hope you weren’t depending on them?”

“Oh, of course not,” said Silly Will, gulping hard. “I certainly wouldn’t depend on a vegetable. That would be too ridiculous. If the frost should kill all the vegetables, it would make no difference to me!” Nevertheless in his heart he felt unhappy and a little frightened at the thought of the coming winter. But still he didn’t understand. Silly people never do understand.

He walked on down the road saying to himself, “I’ll go order my winter wood anyway. I’m almost out of it at home.” Just then he looked up. He expected to see the green forest stretching up the hillside. He stared. The hillside was black smoking stumps, fallen blackened trees, white ashes! Beside the dead trees stood the old forester wringing his hands. Silly Will didn’t even speak to him. He could see what had happened without asking. He turned around. Slowly he walked home. He went right to bed. He still pretended that he wasn’t unhappy or frightened. He kept saying to himself, “I don’t really depend on the wood at all. Of course that would be silly! I’ve got coal. It wouldn’t matter to me if all the plants left me.” And with that thought he fell asleep. You see even now he didn’t understand. Silly people never do understand.

Now that night another strange thing happened to Silly Will. I can’t explain how or why it happened. But in the middle of the night all the plants did leave Silly Will,—not only the potatoes and the trees but the whole vegetable kingdom.

He was asleep all curled up to keep warm in his cotton clothes. Suddenly he felt the comforter and sheet under him jerk away and he was left lying on the wire spring. At the same time the comforter and sheet over him disappeared. So did his nightshirt. Then bang! His wooden bed was gone. The house began to creak and rock. He jumped up and tore down stairs. He just got outside the front door when the whole house collapsed.

The moon was shining. Silly Will could see quite plainly. There stood the brick chimneys rising out of a pile of plaster dumped on top of the concrete foundations. There was the slate roof and the broken window of glass. The air was full of a sound like the violent trembling of many leaves. It sounded for all the world as if it said, “I take back my wood!”

“Whatever will I do?” groaned Silly Will as he shivered all naked in the moonlight. Then his eye lighted on the kitchen stove. There it stood with the stove pipe all safely connected with the chimney.

“I’ll build a coal fire,” he thought. There stood the iron coal scuttle. But alas! It was empty! He heard a far-away murmur like a faint wind stirring in giant ferns. And they said, “I take back my buried leaves!”

By this time Silly Will was shaking with cold. “I’ve heard that newspapers are warm,” he thought. But the pile behind the stove was gone. Again came the murmur of trees—“I take back my pulp,” and a queer soft sound which he couldn’t quite make out. Was it “I take back my cotton?”

Silly Will was thoroughly terrified now.

“I’ll go somewhere to think,” he said to himself. So he crept down the cement steps to the cellar and crawled into a sheltered corner. But he couldn’t think of anything pleasant. He could hear a confused noise all around him. Sometimes it sounded like growls, like animal cries, like animal calls. “The animal kingdom has left him,” it seemed to say. Again it sounded like the wind rustling a thousand leaves. “The vegetable kingdom has left him,” it seemed to say.

“I’ve nothing to wear,” sobbed Silly Will. “And I’m afraid I’ve nothing to eat.” At the thought of food he jumped up and ran over to the cellar pantry. He found just three things. They did not make a tempting meal! They were a crock of salt, a tin of soda and a porcelain pitcher of water.

“What shall I ever do? How shall I live? I’ll never have another glass of milk or cup of cocoa. I’ll never have anything to wear. I’ll freeze and I’ll starve. I might just as well die now!” And poor little Silly Will broke down and cried and cried and cried.

“I can’t live without other living things,” he sobbed. “I can’t eat only minerals and I can’t keep warm in minerals. Everybody has to depend on animals and vegetables. And after all I’m only a little boy! I’ve got to have living things to keep alive myself!”

Then a wonderful thing happened to Silly Will. I can’t explain how or why it happened. Suddenly he felt all warm and comfortable. “Perhaps I’m freezing,” he thought. “I’ve heard that people feel warm when they are almost frozen to death.”

Slowly he put out his hand. Surely that was a linen sheet! Surely that was a woolen blanket. Surely he had on his flannel nightgown. He sat straight up. Surely this was his own bed: this was his own room: this was his own house. He could scarcely believe his eyes. He gave a great shout.

“Moo-oo-oo,” answered a cow under a tree outside his window. And the leaves of the tree rustled at him too.

“Hello, old cow! Hello, old tree!” cried Silly Will running to the window. “Isn’t it good we’re all alive?” And when you think of it that wasn’t a silly remark at all!

“Moo-oo-oo,” lowed the old cow. “Swish-sh-sh-sh,” rustled the tree. And suddenly Silly Will thought he understood! I wonder if he did!

EBEN’S COWS

This story attempts to make an industrial process a background for real adventure.