, French, who
is an excellent milker, and who stands well with the cows, has a half
hiss, half whistle, such as English stable-boys use, except that it runs
up and down five notes and is lost at each end. The cows like it and
seem to admire French for his accomplishment even more than Judson, for
they follow his movements with evident pleasure expressed in their great
ox eyes.

Rigid rules of cleanliness are carried out in every detail with the
greatest exactness. The house and the animals are cared for all the time
as if on inspection. Before milking, the udders are carefully brushed
and washed, and the milker covers himself entirely with a clean apron.
As each cow is milked, the milker hangs the pail on a spring balance and
registers the exact weight on a blackboard. He then carries the milk
through the door that leads to the dairy-house, and pours it into a tank
on wheels. This ends his responsibility. The dairymaid is then in
charge.

CHAPTER XXV

THE DAIRYMAID

Of course I had trouble in getting a dairymaid. I was not looking for
the bouncing, buxom, red-cheeked, arms-akimbo, butter-colored-hair sort.
I didn't care whether she were red-cheeked and bouncing or not, but for
obvious reasons I didn't want her hair to be butter-colored. What I did
want was a woman who understood creamery processes, and who could and
would make the very giltest of gilt-edged butter.

I commenced looking for my paragon in January. I interviewed applicants
of both sexes and all nationalities, but there was none perfect; no, not
one. I was not exactly discouraged, but I certainly began to grow
anxious as the time approached when I should need my dairymaid, and need
her badly. One day, while looking over the _Rural New Yorker_ (I was
weaned on that paper), I saw the following advertisement. "Wanted:
Employment on a dairy-farm by a married couple who understand the
business." If this were true, these two persons were just what I needed;
but, was it true? I had tried a score of greater promise and had not
found one that would do. Was I to flush two at once, and would they
fall to my gun?

A small town in one of the Middle Western states was given as the
address, and I wrote at once. My letter was strong in requirements, and
asked for particulars as to experience, age, references, and
nationality. The reply came promptly, and was more to my liking than any
I had received before. Name, French; Americans, newly married,
twenty-ei