There was more than enough milk to fill every bowl and jug and saucepan. The children drank cupful after cupful. It was lovely to have milk after drinking nothing but tea and cocoa made with water. They could not have enough of it!
“I say! Daisy has trodden on a hen’s egg and smashed it,” said Nora, looking into the hen-yard. “What a pity!”
“Never mind,” said Jack. “We won’t keep her here after to-day. She shall go and live on that nice grassy piece, the other side of the island. Nora, feed the hens. They are clucking as if they’d never stop. They are hungry.”
Nora fed them. Then they all sat down to their breakfast of boiled eggs and creamy milk. Daisy the cow looked at them as they ate, and mooed softly. She was hungry, too.
Jack and Mike took her to the other side of the island after they had finished their meal. She was delighted to see the juicy green grass there and set to work at once, pulling mouthfuls of it as she wandered over the field.
“She can’t get off the island, so we don’t need to fence her in,” said Jack. “We must milk her twice a day, Mike. We must certainly get a pail from somewhere.”
“There’s an old milking-pail in the barn at Aunt Harriet’s farm,” said Peggy. “I’ve seen it hanging there often.”
“Has it got a hole in it?” asked Jack. “If it has it’s no use to us. We’ll have to stand our milk in it all day and we don’t want it to leak away.”
“No, it doesn’t leak,” said Peggy. “I filled it with water one day to take to the hens. It’s only just a very old one not used now.”
“I’ll go and get it to-night,” said Mike.