his time I thought more
of them seemed to answer, and when I got down to the tail-end where the
carts were running, I received a very pleasant surprise, for one of the
boys, who was pushing at the back of a cart, lifted up his head, and
called out to me in wonderfully good English, "You good man--always say
'Good-morning.'" It was sad to think that these poor creatures should
think so much of so small a piece of civility, and strange that
(thinking so) they should be so dull as not to return it.

UNCLE LOUIS.

VI

TO AUSTIN STRONG

_June_ 18, 1893.

Respected Hopkins,[18]--This is to inform you that the Jersey cow had an
elegant little cow-calf Sunday last. There was a great deal of
rejoicing, of course; but I don't know whether or not you remember the
Jersey cow. Whatever else she is, the Jersey cow is _not_ good-natured,
and Dines, who was up here on some other business, went down to the
paddock to get a hood and to milk her. The hood is a little wooden board
with two holes in it, by which it is hung from her horns. I don't know
how he got it on, and I don't believe _he_ does. Anyway, in the middle
of the operation, in came Bull Bazett, with his head down, and roaring
like the last trumpet. Dines and all his merry men hid behind trees in
the paddock, and skipped. Dines then got upon a horse, plied his spurs,
and cleared for Apia. The next time he is asked to meddle with our cows,
he will probably want to know the reason why. Meanwhile, there was the
cow, with the board over her eyes, left tied by a pretty long rope to a
small tree in the paddock, and who was to milk her? She roared,--I was
going to say like a bull, but it was Bazett who did that, walking up
and down, switching his tail, and the noise of the pair of them was
perfectly dreadful.

Palema went up to the Bush to call Lloyd; and Lloyd came down in one of
his know-all-about-it moods. "It was perfectly simple," he said. "The
cow was hooded; anybody could milk her. All you had to do was to draw
her up to the tree, and get a hitch about it." So he untied the cow, and
drew her up close to the tree, and got a hitch about it right enough.
And then the cow brought her intellect to bear on the subject, and
proceeded to walk round the tree to get the hitch off.

[Illustration]

Now, this is geometry, which you'll have to learn some day. The tree is
the centre of two circles. The cow had a "radius" of about two feet, and
went leisurely rou