"What are those hooks for?" asked Jasper of the stolid Dutchman, who showed them about, and who spoke English fairly well.
"We hook the cows' tails up so they won't shake any dirt on their sides," said the Dutchman.
"O dear me!" exclaimed Polly Pepper, and everybody laughed—but she didn't.
"I think that is cruel," she said. "What do the poor things do to beat off the flies, pray tell?"
"Flies?" said Mother Fisher. "I don't suppose they ever see a fly here,
Polly."
"They'd chase one worse than the dirt, I guess," said the little doctor.
"Oh," said Polly, with a sigh of relief.
"Come, Polly, let us go into the cheese room," suggested Jasper, peering in, for everything was connected and under one roof. "There's a man in there, and he is telling something;" so they skipped in, while Phronsie was bewailing that there were no cows there, and where were they?
"Why, Phronsie, they are all out in the fields. You wouldn't have them shut up this hot day," said Grandpapa.
"No," said Phronsie, swallowing the lump in her throat, "I wouldn't, Grandpapa; I'd much rather know they are having a nice time. I don't want them in here, I truly don't."