Adventure of a Kite | Page 7

looked up for a moment, and then
began eating again; Brindle did not seem to mind her; Maggie was
lying down, and did not move; and Frisky lashed her tail and shook her
head, and went on eating.
"O, this will never do!" said Sally. "Trusty, Trusty! go and bring me
Dapple."
Dapple was brown all over, except a white face and tail. Trusty ran
behind Dapple, and barked two or three times, just to tell her to move
on. And she began to walk slowly and gravely towards Sally. Then
Sally put down her little three-legged stool, and sat down by Dapple
and milked her. When she had done, she gave her a pat, and said, "Now
you may go." Then Dapple began to eat again.
"Now, Trusty," said Sally, "go and bring me Brindle." Brindle was all
white. Trusty ran up to her, and she began to walk on; but when she
had got to the middle of the field, she stopped to eat, and Trusty was
obliged to bark pretty sharply, and tell her it was shameful of her. Then
she went on and was milked.
Sally next sent Trusty to bring Frisky. She was brown and white,
prettily spotted; but she was sometimes quite naughty when she was
milked, and this time she seemed to mean to be so; for, as soon as
Trusty got up to her, she set off and galloped up to Sally. Then, just as
Sally began to milk her, she walked on, and left her and her stool
behind, and very nearly knocked the pail over besides. So Sally had to
get up, and move stool and pail onwards, and then she said, "Stand still,
Frisky," and stroked and patted her. So she stood still, and was very
good.
"Now, Trusty, bring pretty Maggie," said Sally. Maggie was black and
white, and very gentle and pretty. She came directly, and stood quite
still, and was milked. Then they were all done.

Sally now lifted the pail, which was quite full, on her head, and carried
it so firmly and steadily, that she had not to put her hand up to it, not
even when she got over the stile, and in this way she walked along back
to the farm.
Then she went into the cool, fresh dairy, and Trusty lay down at the
door. The dairy had a stone shelf all round it, with shallow round pans
ranged along it, all filled with sweet, rich milk, covered with thick,
yellow cream. Here she took down her pail; and first she filled a large
jug with the new milk for breakfast. She then poured all the rest into
two or three pans, like the others on the shelf. Next, she took a flat
wooden spoon, and skimmed the cream off several of the others, and
poured it all into a square wooden machine, called a churn. It had a
handle which turned round. She threw in some salt, and then began to
turn the handle round and round, and it turned a wheel inside, and the
wheel beat and splashed the cream round and round in the churn.
Presently she looked in, and said, "It's not come yet." Then she turned
the handle round again for some time. At last, when she looked in,
there was a large lump of fine fresh butter, and all about it a thin white
liquid, called butter-milk, and all the cream was gone. She took out the
butter, and put it into a bowl of cold spring water, and made it up into
three large rolls with two flat wooden knives. Next she cut off three or
four slices, made them up into nice little rounds, and pressed them with
a wooden stamp, with a rose-bud and leaves cut out upon it, and when
she took it off, there were the rose-bud and leaves marked on the butter.
Then Sally poured all the butter-milk, and all the milk from which she
had skimmed the cream, into a clean wooden pail, and stirred in some
barley meal, and carried it off to the pig-sty. She stood outside the
paling of the pigs' little yard, and called, "Pig--pig--pig!" and out came
the pigs from their sty, little and big, grunting and squeaking and
scrambling, and tumbling over one another. Then she poured all her
pailful into the pigs' trough, and then they began squeaking and
grunting and scrambling more than ever, and put their long noses in,
some of them up to their eyes, and some got their feet in, and all of
them gobbled it up as fast as they possibly could.

After Sally had fed the pigs, she took out some corn, and went to the
poultry yard, and called, "Chuck--chuck--chuck!" and then the cocks
and hens,