in a brown crock; "there is no town
near us."

"But there must be!" she persisted; "you are teasing me. There are
always towns, and they are never far from each other in these parts."

"I do not know them, then," said the Dame, gathering her keys and
leaving the dairy, "though in truth, my dear, I am a poor judge of such
matters, for beyond the Farm--and it is large--I do not go, being too
busy always."

"Do you mean," she cried, following through the barnyard, "that you
spend all the seasons on this Farm? It is not possible!"

"And why is it not possible?" the Dame asked, looking at her for the
first time a little sternly, and she saw that in spite of her smooth
country skin she was a woman of middle age; "the seasons are all full.
In the spring there is planting, in the summer there is picking, in the
autumn there is storing, in the winter there is spinning."

Now these were simple words and plain to understand, and yet something
about them troubled her greatly and she felt that she must find an
answer for them or know no peace at all.

"That is all very well," she said quickly, "but you are leaving out
something without which all the seasons are empty and the year a dull
affair."

"And what is that, then?" asked the Dame.

"Pleasure," she said.

"I find pleasure in them all," the Dame said, "and so do those about
me."

"But they are all work--they are things that must be done!" she cried,
tugging at the Dame's sleeve as she crossed the kitchen threshold; "true
pleasure is a thing apart--we must have both, surely."

The Dame blew a little silver whistle hanging among her keys and at once
there was a bustle and a running and some dozen maids came hurrying from
all parts of the rambling farm-house to hear her orders. But before she
busied herself with these she spoke to her guest.

"My dear," she said, "if you come to my time of life and have not found
your pleasure in your work, you will never find it in this world. Sit
down and think of this."

She sat down upon a carven chest by the open window, where the asters
sent out a spicy odour and the hum of bees was not too far distant, and
dropped her chin into the cup of her hands and thought.

Meantime, the Dame laid out for each girl her task, not hurried nor yet
slow, but so that each was started fairly.

"You, Lotte, order the cordial-room so that there is room for the new
bottles and write them down in the store-book. Remember to leave no
drippings