The Pigeon Tale | Page 2

seemed so familiar.
He had to ask ever so many questions, polite questions you know, for
he was not a rude little boy at all, but it seemed so wonderful to him to
be here at last that he could not help exclaiming at everything.
There was the parlor just as he had imagined it, with the row of
seashells across the mantle and the door opening into the porch and
garden and beyond the library with its great deep fireplace, its
old-fashioned andirons and red brick hearth.
Nothing was new in the old house, everything had been made years and
years ago when there was no machinery, and chairs and furniture had to
be turned by hand; for that reason people who made them took more
pains than they do now, so that they would last a long time, and only
the colours in the brocades had faded and the silk worn away in the
cross-stitch work of the antimacassars.
Laurie went from room to room with Aunt Laura, looking at everything.
"Will you show me the cow-pitcher, Aunt Laura?" he asked, and Aunt
Laura laughed and opened a deep cupboard, where the best china was
kept, and took the pitcher down from a high shelf. Such a curious
pitcher, it was, a brown and white china cow--I'm sure it must have
been very, very old, for I never see pitchers like it now-a-days. The tail
was curved into a handle, and the mouth was the spout!
Aunt Laura said that she would keep it on the table every day, full of
cream for his porridge, just as she had done for his mother, when she,
as a little girl, had stayed at the farm.
[Illustration: Aunt Laura shows Laurie the cow-pitcher]

When supper came, how good everything tasted! The home-cured ham,
delicious butter made on the farm, great slices of fresh bread and
schmeirkase--I don't believe many of you boys and girls know what
"Schmeirkase" is, do you? Well, anyway, it is made somehow from
thick sour cream, so thick that it is put in a bag and hung up in the dairy
until it is time to be eaten--when I was a little girl and visited a farm
they used to have schmeirkase for supper, and I always hoped they
would offer me a second helping and they always did! There were
strawberries too, and stewed rhubarb, and chocolate layer cake. And
Aunt Laura put the cake away after supper in a round tin box, in a
corner of the cupboard, and gave Laurie a great slice the next morning
to eat, for fear he would grow hungry before dinner.
"I'm as glad as I can be that I've come," he said, and Uncle Sam and
Aunt Laura smiled at each other. "So like his mother," said Aunt Laura
and Laurie wondered how he could be like his mother, for his mother
was ever so much taller then he, and ever so much more "grown up."
[Illustration: Flower ornament]
CHAPTER II.
After supper, Laurie slipped his small hand inside Uncle Sam's big one,
and they started out together to see the farm, the big collie dog "Shep"
running along beside them.
"I've never seen so many animals in all my life," he exclaimed, as they
came up to the great gate that shut in the barnyard, "except perhaps in
the Zoo."
"Shall we stop here for a moment?" said Uncle Sam, lifting Laurie up
and seating him on the gate-post, where he could see all over the yard
at once.
"Oh, how fine!" exclaimed Laurie, "I feel just like a little bird that
perches on a tree, and looks down on the cows underneath, and isn't a
bit afraid of their horns!"

[Illustration: Uncle Sam and Laurie]
Uncle Sam laughed, for he knew the cows would not hurt him,
nevertheless he kept his arm around Laurie to be sure, for he was a little
city boy, and city boys only see pictures of cows in books, and Uncle
Sam thought Laurie might be a weeny bit afraid. Bossie, Bonnie Bee,
Lilian and Daisy, the cows, were standing around waiting to be milked,
switching their tails and moo-oo-ing now and then; some would wander
over to the wide horse trough, over which the water spilled, and bend
their heads until their mouths touched the water, when they would
drink in great gulps, then turn away with dripping chins.
Just then there was the sound of hoofs, and old "Sue," "Magic" and
"Marvel" and the colt "Arbutus" raced up from the pasture, and into the
barnyard.
Uncle Sam drew a handful of apples out of his capacious pockets, and
the horses came whinneying and ate them out of his hand.
"I'm glad I'm up here," laughed Laurie, but Uncle Sam latched