sure, they were much less
fearsome without horns, but still they were too big and dreadful to be
entirely trusted. So she stood watching the milk foam into the shining
tin buckets and then she walked contentedly with Ira to where Amanda
was waiting to strain the milk and put it away in the spring-house.

"Do you keep it out here all winter and doesn't it freeze?" asked Edna.

"In winter we keep it in the pantry up at the house. If it should turn
cold suddenly now, we'd have to bring it in," Amanda told her, as she
carefully lifted the earthen crocks into place. "There comes Reliance
for the cream and butter," she went on. "Reliance, I'll carry up the
milk and you come along with the rest. Don't tarry down here, and be
sure you lock the spring-house door and fetch in the key." Then she went
out leaving the two little girls behind.

Reliance carefully attended to her duties, Edna watching her admiringly.
It must be a fine thing to be so big a girl as this, one who could be
trusted to do work like a grown-up woman. "Let me carry something," she
offered, when Reliance stepped up the stone steps and outside, carrying
the butter in one hand and the pitcher of cream in the other.

"If you would lock the door and wouldn't mind taking the key along, I
wouldn't have to set down these things," Reliance said.

Edna did as she was asked, standing tip-toe in order to turn the big key
in the heavy door.

"When we get to the house you can hang the key on its nail behind the
kitchen door," Reliance told her. "It is always kept there."

Edna swung the big key on her finger by its string and trotted along by
the side of Reliance, asking many questions, and delighting to hear
Reliance enlarge upon the all-important subject of the Thanksgiving
festivities.

"We've got to get up good and early," Reliance remarked, "for there's
a heap to be done, even if we are ahead with the baking. I expect to
be up before daylight, myself, and I reckon Ira will be milking by
candlelight," she added, as she entered the kitchen door. Mrs. Conway
was in the kitchen talking to Amanda, and Edna hastened to show her
little hoard of tomatoes. "We gathered a whole lot of chestnuts, too,"
she told her mother. "They were all on the ground down the hill behind
the barn."

"I know the very tree," Mrs. Conway told her. "We must roast some in the
ashes this evening. Come along, supper is ready and you must get
yourself freshened up."

Edna followed along and