el and sand, the experiment of eating an entire
mouthful at a time appeared too hazardous and desperate. They were of a
cautious turn of mind, in addition to which their udders had become so
distended that little white beads were forcing themselves from the
teats, and they expressed their desire for relief by plaintive
whimperings and by laying their rough heads caressingly against La
Giralda's short and primitive skirt and leather-cased legs.

In a few moments after they had reached the pavilion the Princess came
shouting back. She was certainly a most jovial little person, Spanish at
all points, with great dark eyes and cheeks apple-red with good health
and the sharp airs of the Guadarrama. Dona Susana had walked a little in
front of La Giralda and her flock, to show the superiority of her
position, and also, it may be, to display the amplitude of her several
chins, by holding them in the air in a manner as becoming as it was
dignified.

"Milk them! Milk them quickly! Let me see!" the Princess shouted,
clanging the pails joyously together. The walls of the pavilion in which
La Giralda found herself were decorated with every kind of household
utensil, but not such as had ever been used practically. Everything was
of silver or silver-gilt. There was indeed a complete _batterie de
cuisine_--saucepans, patty-pans, graters, a mincing machine with the
proper screws and handles, shining rows of lids, and a complete
graduated series of cooking spoons stuck in a bandolier. Salad dishes of
sparkling crystal bound with silver ornamented the sideboard, while
various earthen pots and pans of humbler make stood on a curiously
designed stove under whose polished top no fire had ever burned. At
least so it appeared to La Giralda, who, much impressed by the
magnificence of the installation, would promptly have driven her goats
out again.

But this the little Isabel would by no means permit.

"Here--here!" she commanded, "this is mine--my very own. My mother has a
dairy--I have a kitchen. Milk the goats here, I command you, nowhere but
here!"

And thrusting the bucket into the old woman's hand, she watched
carefully and eagerly as La Giralda pressed the milk downwards in
hissing streams. The she-goat operated upon expressed her gratitude by
turning to lick the hand which relieved her.

At this the little girl danced with delight.

"It looks so easy--I could do it myself! I am sure of it. I tell you,
Susana, I will do it. Stand