because it 's been a long day and there 's no reason to expect that it 's not going to get longer , i allow myself the small pleasure of imagining that the sloping fields and glossy mares on either side of the lane are mine , and that i 'm strolling pleasantly down to my own yard , filled with the buoyant contentedness that comes from the certainty of one 's holdings and the knowledge that dinner will have once been a cow .