The children ran out to see the calves being herded together, and Jud embarrassed Meg and Bobby very much by introducing them as the little people who had heard the calves in the night and gone downstairs after them.
“Meg heard ’em,” said Bobby modestly.
“Well, well, well!” almost shouted Mr. Sparks, though that was his natural way of talking; he couldn’t speak low. “I do certainly admire a girl with spunk enough to get up in the middle of the night and chase live-stock. You ought to be a farmer’s daughter.”
He paused and smiled at the children. It 133 was impossible not to like this bluff, red-faced man with the loud voice.
“I had intended to give a little reward to the person who did me this service,” went on Mr. Sparks. “Finding there’s two of ’em, rightly I should double it. But Mrs. Hayward, I hear, doesn’t want you to take money––good notion, too, in a way, I guess. Suppose I give you one of these little calves now. How would that do?”
“One of those darling little calves?” cried Meg.
“To keep?” echoed Bobby.
“To keep, of course,” assented Mr. Sparks. “You pick the critter you want, and I guess Mrs. Hayward will pasture it for you.”
“Sure she will,” promised Jud, who was standing by with a delighted smile. “And after you go back to Oak Hill, I’ll take good care of it and next summer you can come up and see your own cow.”
Aunt Polly and Linda and Peter all had to be summoned, and then, with every one’s help and advice, not forgetting the twins’, Bobby and 134 Meg selected a handsome cream-colored little calf that Mr. Sparks assured them would grow into a Jersey bossy cow like Mrs. Sally Sweet.