“Now,” sez the demonsthrator, “if you’ll just get the horses goin’, an’ pour the milk into that receptacle, I’ll start the separator working.”
Tammas in wi’ the milk, an’ the wee son whips up the horses outside, an’ away goes the separator bizzin’ like a hive av bees.
“In a few seconds, gentlemen and ladies,” sez the dimonsthrator, “you will see the milk come out here, an’ the cream here. Kindly pay attention, please.”
But he needn’t have spoke; for iverybody was leanin’ forrard, holdin’ their breath, an’ there wasn’t a sound to be heard but the hummin’ of the separator.
Presently there comes a sort av a thick trickle out av the milk-hole, but divil a dhrap av crame.
The dimonsthrator gathered up his brow a bit at that, an’ spakes out av the barn windy to Tammas’s wee boy to dhrive faster. The separator hums harder than iver, but still no crame. Wan begin to look at the other, an’ some av the wimmen at the back starts gigglin’.
The dimonsthrator begin to get very red an’ flusthered-lookin’. “Are ye sure this milk is fresh an’ hasn’t been skimmed?” he sez to Tammas, very sharp.
“What do you say, Mary?” sez Tammas, lookin’ over at the wife. “Sartin, sir,” sez Mrs. Tammas. “It’s just fresh from the cows this very evenin’.”
“Most extraordinary,” sez the dimonsthrator, rubbin’ his hair till it was all on end. “I’ve niver had such an experience before.”
“It’s the way Tammas feeds his cows,” sez Big Billy Lenahan from the back; “sure, iverybody knows he gives them nothin’ but shavin’s.”