ottles."
Before milking time was over each little girl held her cup and had it
milked full of fresh, new milk.
At first the children thought they would carry the cups home and drink
the milk for breakfast. But they were so hungry they couldn't wait, so
they drank it standing in the barnyard, with Bonny-Belle and Bess
looking at them with soft, kind eyes.
That afternoon Mary had some work to do and Betty and Peggy went for a
walk with their mothers.
[Illustration: DOT AND DON]
Little Dot was tired from her early morning visit to the barnyard. So
she took a book of fairy stories and went out into the near-by field.
She settled herself cozily under a big maple tree and began to read.
After a little while the book slid from her hands. Her head nodded and
nodded and then rested on the grass. Her eyes winked and winked and then
closed.
She must have slept almost an hour when she woke with a start. Something
very soft and moist was moving over her nose and cheeks. It felt almost
as if her face were being washed with a sticky cloth.
Dot opened her sleepy blue eyes and looked right into the big brown eyes
of Don, Buttercup's baby calf.
"Oh! Oh!" cried the little girl.
"Ma-a-a," replied Don as he frisked away.
"You are a dear little thing," Dot called after him, "but I wish you
wouldn't kiss me with your tongue all over my face."
The morning of the picnic was bright and clear. There was great
excitement in the kitchen and pantry. Mrs. White and Molly, the maid,
were fixing the lunch, but the four little girls couldn't help popping
in every few minutes to take a peep. The two other mothers peeped too.
What they saw made them wish that they were to be invited to the picnic.
But this time only the four little girls who had found Brown Betty were
to go.
At last the lunch was packed in four baskets and off the children went.
On their way they found some wild strawberries. They stopped to pick
them, and Mary showed the others how to make leaf baskets to hold
berries. They gathered broad, flat leaves and fastened them together
with little twigs.
Then they went on until at last they came to the loveliest spot you ever
saw. It was an open space with trees all around it. Near-by was a little
bubbling spring.
The children set their baskets in the shade and began to romp and play.
They played "Hide-and-Go-Seek" and a new game which they called "Echo."
Can you guess how to play this game?
At last they gre
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