TIBERIUS SMITH
"Poor Bilger failed to appreciate how the little, wobbly one's presence in the paddock could make any difference and tried to say so, but Tib cut him short. 'While I would be the last man in Vermont to separate parent from child,' he declared, 'yet the child in this case cannot presume upon its mother's legal status to claim a day in court. The child is an orphan. Legally its mother is dead, or rather, has, by those subtle evolutions in law, been transformed into a will. She cannot even claim to be in loco parentis. She is no longer a cow; she is a document. She can have no offspring.^
"‘Then at least the calf belongs to the creditors,' cried Mr. Remmy, quickly. 'For having no parent, no owner, it is a stray, the property of the first to claim it.'
"‘Not by a blamed sight—' began Hiram.
"‘Hesitate a moment,' commanded Tib. 'While, an orphan, yet its coming into the world affects the validity of the will. The will, as originally drawn, consisted of three cows, a steer, and two horses. An erasure in that instrument, say the death of any clause, would render the instrument null and void. Any tampering with a will after the testator's signature has been affixed, or after his death, such as writing in another clause, would invalidate it. The calf is an interpolation. While a codicil can be set aside without rendering inoperative the body of the
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