THE VOLCANO IRAZU 121 



that looked as if they could really give an appreciable quan- 

 tity of milk. (Most of the cows here give very little, and 

 if the calf dies, or is removed, the cow goes dry immediately.) 

 We did not make an exact count but there were about sixty. 

 The cows were fastened by stanchions and fed with hay 

 and then the milking began. The milk was strained through 

 cloths and then dripped over pipes, through which cold water 

 was constantly running, directly into the cans in which it 

 was carried to Cartago. The milk cans were of the familiar 

 type with a copper label on the shoulder stating that they 

 were made in Bellows Falls, Vermont. Some time after 

 milking the cows were set free again and returned to the 

 pastures, being milked only once a day. 



The rain stopping about four o'clock, we walked around 

 a little admiring the views, the huge oaks and beautiful 

 flowers and enjoying the antics of a number of frisky calves. 

 A little after five we were invited into the kitchen to have 

 some hot coffee and warm ourselves by the fire, an invitation 

 we were glad to accept. The kitchen was a large room with 

 a door and one small window in a corner. Its walls were 

 board on one side, mud and bamboo on the others, while 

 the floor was earthen. For furniture it had two or three 

 benches against the walls, a long rude table, a rack of hooks 

 holding white enamel cups, another rack full of white enamel 

 plates, a swinging shelf on which some edibles were kept — 

 I saw the cook take down one of the usual cakes of brown 

 dulce — a tall wooden coffee strainer, some pots and kettles 

 and in the center a modern cookstove, which however had 

 no chimney connections. But although the stove was mod- 

 ern, the cook was not and the entire front and sides of the 

 stove were wide open and obviously warped and rusted be- 

 yond the possibility of ever shutting again. The sticks 

 of wood were twice as long as the fire box and were pushed 

 in as the ends burned. From a kettle on the stove the cook 



