“Of course!” laughed his mother. “Buttermilk is always sour. But it is good for you, and I like the taste of it.”
“You can have all of mine,” said Russ.
“And I don’t want any, either,” Rose made haste to say.
Thus it was that butter was made, and it came out well except that, almost at the last minute, Mun Bun took the plug out of the bottom of the churn and let some of the buttermilk run over the floor. But Norah soon wiped it up.
The next day Russ decided that he would make a larger mill for his water wheel in the brook to turn, and Laddie offered to help him. The two boys went down to the stream with bits of wood, a hammer and nails, and they were busy for some time. Mrs. Bunker had taken the other children for a walk in the forest not far away.
While Russ was working at the new mill Laddie piled up stones and bits of sod on top of the dam already built, to make it higher so the water back of it would be deeper.
“The deeper the water is and the higher we have the dam,” Russ explained to Laddie, “the faster the wheel will turn.”
“Yes, it’ll be fine,” agreed Laddie, tugging at a big stone to get it on top of the dam.
Russ was putting the new play mill in place and was getting ready to connect it to the water wheel when suddenly he heard a big splash up at the dam, which he could not see plainly because a bush was in the way.
“What happened, Laddie?” asked Russ. “Did you drop something in the water?”