Twelve-year-old Jack and his little brother Tom, a couple years younger, had been fishing in the creek most of the morning. Now they were on their way home and they were hungry for lunch. It was a fine clear day in early fall. The fishing had been fun but the few fish they caught were tossed back into the creek because they were too little to keep. 

Presently they came upon Mr. Miller’s apple orchard. The trees were a beautiful sight, loaded with bright shiny red fruit just right for picking. 

“Lets see if we can reach over the fence and pick some apples. They look like Jonathans, my favorite,” said Jack. He tried but the trees were all too far back from the fence.

“Maybe you could climb over the fence,” suggested Tom.

“Maybe,” said Jack and before he could think it through he was climbing the fence. Jack found some beautiful low-hanging fruit and was about to pick one when---

“Look out! There comes a huge cow,” yelled Tom.

Forgetting the apples, Jack looked around and said, “That’s no cow. That’s a bull, and he does not look friendly.”

“Up the tree!” said Tom, as Jack scrambled up out of the bull’s reach.

What the boys failed to realize was that the orchard was at the end of a pasture where the bull (a daddy cow) had been feeding on grass during the day where the fence enclosed both the pasture and the orchard. The bull was not interested in the apples, but was free to move among the trees. He must have noticed the disturbance and come to check it out. Did he think he was a watchdog?

The bull stood under Jack’s chosen tree, looking up at Jack now and then and pawing the ground once in a while. He didn’t seem to want to move on; he just hung around there. Jack was trapped in the tree and didn’t know what to do. Sweat poured down his face as he wished he had not climbed the fence. After what seemed a long, long time Jack had an idea.

“Tom, take off your shirt.”

“Huh?”

“Take off your shirt and wave it over the fence. Get the bull’s attention, and move away from me, waving the shirt. Maybe he’ll follow you.” Tom did as Jack said but the bull didn’t seem to notice. Tom came closer to the bull and tried again. This time the bull looked at the waving shirt and stepped toward it. As Tom moved away from Jack, the bull followed. As the bull began to catch up with Tom, he ran faster and finally pulled his shirt back over to his side of the fence.

“Get out now,” said Tom as Jack jumped to the ground and over the fence.

The boys crossed the road before they sat down to get their breath. After a little while the bull lost interest in the boys and wandered off.

“Boy, I’m glad that’s over,” said Jack, “that beast could have killed me.”

“Yeah, I guess we were lucky that you weren’t hurt,” said Tom.

“No more stealing apples for me,” said Jack.

“Same here,” said Tom. “ I’m going to stick to fishing.