said Edna after a while,
when she had gathered together quite a little heap.

"I'll show you," Reliance told her, and began tying knots in the corners
of the apron she wore. "There," she said, "that makes a very good bag,
and what we can't carry that way we can leave and come back for
to-morrow. We'd better take as many as we can, though, for to-morrow
will be such a busy day I may not be able to come, and if we don't, the
squirrels will get them all."

"I could come alone, now that I know the way," said Edna, "or maybe
mamma would come with me."

"I suppose we'd better be going back," said Reliance when she lifted the
improvised bag to her arm. "It is near to milking time and that means
getting ready for supper."

"What do you do to get ready for supper?" asked Edna taking hold of one
side of the bag.

"Oh, I set the table and go down to the spring-house for the butter and
cream. I can skim milk now, but I couldn't at first, I got it all mixed
up."

"Do you skim all the milk?"

"Oh, no, that we put on the table to drink is never skimmed. The skimmed
milk goes to the pigs."

"Oh, does it? I think you feed your pigs pretty well. Are we going to
watch them milk?"

"You can if you like; I've got to go right back."

"You don't help with the milking then?"

"No; Ira does it. Your grandpa says it is man's work, but Ira lets me do
a little sometimes so I will learn."

"Aren't you afraid of the cows?"

"No, indeed, are you?"

"Kind of. They have such sharp horns sometimes," answered Edna by way of
excusing her fear.

"Your grandpa's don't have; he keeps only dehorned cattle."

"What are they?"

"The kind that have had their horns taken off so they don't do any
damage."

"I think maybe I wouldn't mind that kind so much," said Edna, after
considering the matter for a moment. "If you don't mind, I think I
would like to stop and see Ira milk."

Reliance said she didn't mind in the least and, therefore, she left the
little girl at the bars of the stable yard which was quite as near as
she wished to stand to the herd of cows gathered within.

"Want to come in and learn to milk?" asked Ira, looking up with a smile
at the little red-capped figure.

"Oh, no, thank you," returned Edna hastily. "I'd rather watch you." She
would really have like to try her hand if there had been but one cow,
but when there were six, how could a young person be certain that one of
the number would not turn and rend her? To be