"Moo-oo-oo-oo!"

"Moo-oo-oo-oo!" by Laurence Donovan is a humorous urban short story written in the late 1920s. It follows a city traffic cop whose shy infatuation with a red-haired motorist turns into an unexpected connection when a runaway cow disrupts a crowded intersection.

Officer James Emmet Corcoran times his day around brief sightings of a young woman in a silky roadster, nursing dreams he’s too humble to voice. One afternoon a crate spills a cow into his intersection, creating chaos he can’t quell—until the woman calmly steps out with a pail and stool, milks the distressed animal, and helps restore order. Corcoran fends off gawkers, tickets a leering chauffeur, and gets traffic moving again. When the cow’s owner reappears, the woman invites Corcoran to carry the brimming pail and see her home. She reveals she’s a recent transplant from the country, weary of city life, and welcomes him in for strawberries and cream, dissolving his class anxieties as their mutual warmth quietly begins.