s which had reigned was broken at her approach
by the neighing of a horse, and at the sound the chickens began to
beat madly against the wire fencing of their yard, cows set up a
bellowing, and a wild grunting came from the pig-pen.

Betty hurried to the barn. Three cows in their stanchions turned
imploring eyes on her, and a couple of old horses neighed loudly.
Something prompted Betty to look in the feed boxes. They were empty.

"I believe they're hungry!" she exclaimed. "Clover, I don't believe
they've been fed or watered for several days! They wouldn't act like
this if they had."

There wasn't a drop of water anywhere in or about the barn, and a
hasty investigation of the pig troughs and the drinking vessels in
the chicken yard showed the same state of affairs.

"I don't know how much to feed you," Betty told the suffering animals
compassionately, "but at any rate I know _what_ to feed you. And you
shall have some water as fast as I can pump it."

She was thankful for the weeks spent at Bramble Farm as she set about
her heavy tasks. She was tired from her long ride and the excitement
of the morning, but it never entered her head to go away and leave
the neglected farm stock. There was no other house within sight where
she could go for help, and if the animals were fed and watered that
day it was evidently up to her to do it.

She worked valiantly, heaping the horses' mangers with hay, carrying
cornstalks to the cows and feeding the ravenous pigs and chickens
corn on the cob, for there was no time to run the sheller. She had
some difficulty in discovering the supplies, and then, when all were
served, she discovered that not one of the animals had touched the
food.

"Too thirsty," she commented wisely.

Watering them was hard, tiresome work, for one big tub in the center
of the yard evidently served the whole barn. When she had pumped that
full--and how her arms ached!--she led the horses out, and after
them, the cows. She was afraid to let either horses or cows have all
they wanted, and jerking them back to their stalls before they had
finished was not easy. She carried pailful after pailful of water to
the pigs and the chickens and it was late in the afternoon before she
had the satisfaction of knowing that every animal, if not content,
was much more comfortable than before her arrival.

"Now I think I've earned something to eat!" she confided to Clover,
when, hot and tired and flushed with the heat, she