“It wouldn't do, little miss. It would be taking milk all the time. We always keep the calves tied all day, except a little while night and morning when they can get all the milk they like from their mother. But I guess I'll begin pretty soon to let this calf out to pasture.”
“Are these cows going out to-day?” inquired Mrs. Denville.
“Oh, yes, ma'am. I'm late getting them milked. A neighbor's son hurt his foot, and I had to go help attend to it. Usually I milk by daylight, and get the cows out of the stable. So-so, bossy,” he went on. Going in beside the cow he called Miss Molly, he unfastened her chain, and allowed her to leave her stall.
She immediately went to a kind of trough at one side of the stable, where there was running water. What a good long drink she had. Then she leisurely made her way toward a door in the north side of the barn, stood for a few seconds in the doorway, as if, Mrs. Denville said, she were admiring the magnificent view of the Purple Hills in the distance.
Denno was unloosing the other cows, and as Miss Molly heard them coming behind her, she stepped down a sloping walk, and entered a large green field that stretched away beyond the river.
“I suppose she won't come back till dark,” said Mrs. Denville.
“No, ma'am,” replied Denno, “but she'll be here then, waiting to get in that door, and all the other cows with her.”
“Don't they ever run away like naughty children?” asked Mary.
“No,” replied the man, “they don't run away, but sometimes if we are careless about our fences, they get into the neighbor's pastures. Usually though, they come right home. You see they love their stable. Mr. Gleason keeps them clean and comfortable, and gives them extra feed, and cows know when they are well off as well as human beings. They like to sleep in their own beds. Some of the neighbors have to run all over their pastures hunting cows at night but we never do.”
“Mamma, what are you laughing at?” inquired Mary taking her hand.