to know something of the art of
churning; he was, therefore, called into the dairy: as soon as he saw
the state of the matter he exclaimed, "Why, the cream's gone to
sleep!"

"The cream gone to sleep!" What in the world could that mean? Such a
propensity we had never discovered in cream before; we could gain no
solution of the mystery from Tom; all he said was, that we must go on
churning till it "waked up."

H. and myself had been hard at work for two hours, so willingly
yielded to his request that he might be allowed to rouse the cream
from its slumber. He, the cook, and housemaid, churned away by turns
till seven in the evening, but the sleep of the cream remained
unbroken, and as it was then considered a hopeless affair, the
slothful fluid was consigned to the pig-tub.

Now we have never felt quite sure of our butter since. Every time we
churn there is a lurking fear that the cream may choose to take a nap;
however, it is as yet the first and last time in our experience.

I can give no advice to my readers on the subject, because I am wholly
ignorant on the subject, though I have consulted every farmer's wife
in the neighborhood on the matter. They all say that cream will go to
sleep sometimes, though it usually wakes up after a few hours.* [I
have since been told by an old woman conversant with sleepy cream,
that a quart of milk nearly boiling hot will wake it up.] Perhaps,
after all, we were too impatient, and should not have given in after
_only_ nine hours' churning. With this solitary exception our
butter-making progressed as favorably as we could desire.

I do not quite know how to believe the stories I am told of wonderful
cows which my friends are fortunate enough to possess. One gentleman
has informed me that he has one which gives fifteen pounds of butter
weekly. Now we have had several, but never made more on the average
than eight pounds per week. I believe that a great deal depends on the
manner in which they are milked, and once in the hands of a beginner
in that art the cows decreased in milk so rapidly, that we did not get
more than a gallon daily from both animals; after they had been three
weeks under his management we changed the milker, but did not get
anything like the proper quantity again till after they had calved.

I believe the usual average is one pound of butter from every ten
quarts of milk. Ours used to give us thirteen or fourteen quarts each
daily, and yet we never made mor