The Afflictions at Kew
His Majesty’s flock of Spanish sheep at Kew is most grievously afflicted, with the mad staggers, the foot-rot, the maggots, and the scab, the red water and the white waters, the black scour and the broken belly, the worms in the lights and the flounder in the liver, the murrin, the dropsy, the goggles, and the gripes; and there was a dog got among them and bit nine lambs, and as many ewes besides, and though Mr. Dunstall thought it was not a mad dog, the head shepherd Mr. Stanford said that it was, and got his pony and rode after it and killed it; and well did it prove to be a mad dog, for seven ewes have gone mad since.
Now the King himself is mad; he is peevish, and talks incessantly on a strange array of subjects, and rambles on to the point of wildness, and is kept secluded at Kew, where he walks often among his sheep, and then becomes, according to Dr. Willis, as Mild as Milk.
Ram No. 16 of His Majesty’s Spanish Flock
Ram No. 16, a Great Fighter, has been so often injured by the frays in which he is so much engaged, with very severe hurts upon his head from hard blows, that he is judged to be unfit for service in His Majesty’s ewe flock at Kew and is exiled by sea to the north, where he will end his days—begun on the low, warm slopes above the Guadiana, in Estremadura—somewhere on the estates of James Graham, 3rd Duke of Montrose, among the cold, wet hills and sunless valleys of the west of Scotland.
Traveling
The cat led me out onto the porch and pointed its paw—There, and there—then picked up a tiny long-handled broom and began to sweep the boards.
I went into the kitchen, where the new proprietor directed me upstairs, using only his eyes, as he continued to scrub the enameled countertop.
I climbed the stairs and stopped on the top step. She was standing in the hallway. The banister cleaved between us. I asked her, Were you going to tell me?
She said, No.
I asked, Tomorrow, or some other day?
She said, Perhaps.
I asked, The train, when it passes, windows agape, curtains billowing white, will you be on it?
She said, Rail travel is dead. Besides, I have a sleek new automobile that will get me there fast. By the way, was that you I passed on the expressway?
With a touch of despair I asked, Who now will be for me?
With a touch of annoyance she answered, Now will you leave me be?
