Soon the stew was over the fire, and once more they all sat down to wait. Konah, with her dreamy mind full of the story she had just heard, and her eyes full of the new light of dawning intelligence, sat watching the goats that were frisking and playing about the yard. It began to break in dimly upon her mind that all those antics might have meaning apart from the present, and might spring from some dim remembrance of experiences from the long ago, when the animals belonged to a higher order of beings.
Just then one of the goats dropped to its knees and began to rub its neck along the grass.
"Ah, Mammy!" exclaimed the little girl excitedly, "yo' see dah goat? W'ey t'ing dat he do?"
"He 'member how he bin swim, long tem," answered the woman somewhat indifferently. "Not to kratch he duh kratch,[15] but to swim he duh swim long tem, w'en de ocean come 'pon de beef all."
Another goat, some distance away, was chewing its cud with much energy and determination. The process attracted the children, one of whom raised a question as to its meaning.
"Yo' no know dat?" replied Mamenah, this time with growing interest. "Dat nar de ress wey dey yeat long tem. He no done yet; goat, cow, dey duh yeat all tem, even net tem, day tem, dey yeat dah ress."
A frisky kid was playfully kicking up its heels, and anon leaping into the air.
"Wey t'ing make he do dat?" asked Konah, laughing gleefully at the antics of the kid.
The woman, now thoroughly in sympathy with the children's questions, launched into a series of explanations without waiting for further inquiries.