And when she didn't he was quite
disappointed.

"Try it again--will you?" he besought the Muley Cow.

"What!" she bawled. "Do you _want_ me to choke?"

"Yes!" he told her. "I thought that if you did, Farmer Green would come
and run a whip-stock down your throat. And that would be great fun to
watch, you know."

The Muley Cow gasped. She saw that Master Meadow Mouse knew all about
her choking over an apple, in the orchard. And that was something she
never liked to talk about. To tell the truth, she was somewhat ashamed
of the whole affair. "Go away!" she bade Master Meadow Mouse. "Go away!
I don't want anything to do with you." But her voice wasn't the least
bit fierce. Nor was he the least bit frightened.

In the end it was the Muley Cow herself that ran off. And Master Meadow
Mouse even followed her all the way to the bars.

The Muley Cow was so ashamed to have been chased by a Meadow Mouse (and
a young one, at that!) that she scarcely dared look anybody in the face
until milking-time.

XXIII

THE VOW OF A COW

All the cows in the barn were much upset. They had heard some news that
didn't please them. Farmer Green was going to buy a milking machine!

"He'll never use it on me," the Muley Cow declared. "None of my family
has ever been milked by a machine; and I don't intend to be the first."

Her companions all felt just as she did. If Farmer Green could have
listened to their mutterings and rumblings and murmurings he might not
have dared bring home any milking machine. But he never dreamed that the
whole herd was _against_ one. As for his son Johnnie--and even the
hired man--they had said all along that they thought a milking machine
would be a fine thing to have.

The hired man had milked cows all his life--millions of them, so he
said! And he told Johnnie that he no longer found any fun in turning out
of a warm bed on a cold winter's morning long before daylight, to milk
cows.

Now, Johnnie Green had only learned to milk during the summer before.
But strange to say, he had already begun to feel somewhat as the hired
man did. Milking was not half the sport that it was in the beginning.

The great day came at last when the milking machine arrived. There was
an unusual bustle in the cow barn while it was being set up and tested.
Since it was winter, the cows had little else to do but watch what was
going on--and grumble. They all felt just as they had when they first
heard about the new machi