“Maybe one of those lazy, good-for-nothing hens changed her mind by this time, Rachel, but I doubt it very much,” laughed Janet.
Rachel stood watching her go down the lane, and she smiled broadly as she returned to the kitchen to bake the cake. Janet went over to one of the newly filled straw nests without any hope of finding anything there. But the moment she spied two smooth eggs beside the china egg in the nest, she gave such a war whoop of joy that every chicken in the runway started calling and the cock began crowing with fear.
She was about to race from the hen house when she remembered to look in the remaining nests. To her added delight and astonishment she found four more eggs.
“Well, well! This isn’t as bad as I thought it was. I suppose the hens are becoming accustomed to the change from Ames’s farm to Green Hill, and they like it better now,” soliloquized Janet as she skipped joyously along the walk.
“Rachel! Oh, Rachel! I got six eggs—all fresh and clean!” cried Janet when she came near enough to the house to be heard by the cook.
Rachel ran out upon the stoop to express her amazement, and Janet said: “How much are six strictly fresh eggs, Rachel. I am not going to charge Jimmy as much as Ames does.”
Rachel looked stunned. She had not thought of being charged for the eggs when she took them out of the box and placed them in the nests, yet she knew it would be dishonest to expect Mrs. James to pay for them out of Natalie’s money.
“Mis’ James knows what dey is wuth,” was all she said, as she took the eggs and put them back in the basket whence they had been so recently taken.
Janet had hurried to the porch and now led Mrs. James out to the kitchen to show her the wonderful eggs.
When they went back to the side porch, Mrs. James said: “Janet, this is the idea I had when you spoke about the cow. If you cannot afford to buy one for yourself, why not form a company and every one at Green Hill own a share in the cow. It will be easier for you as a cow makes lots of work that you do not dream of, and with seven of us to do the work neither will be overtaxed. We would all take turns. One would drive the cow to pasture in the morning, another bring her home at night. One must keep the pails and pans clean, another look after the feed. Still another will milk and another churn butter. Every week we will change about so that each one gets an opportunity to learn how to do all the work.”