`` my dad said , '' said weaver , `` that one day he was leading our old cow to market and it took ill and fell down in the lane near her cottage and he could n't get it to move and he went up to her place and he knocked on the door and she opened it and before he could open his mouth she said , `` yer cow 's ill , weaver '' ... just like that ... and then she said- '' `` was that the old brindled cow what your dad had ? ''