TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS. 383 



Going with her sister one day to witness the interesting 

 process of milking the "family friend" in the barn-yard, 

 the milkmaid allowed the former, the elder of the two 

 children, to try her hand at milking. 



Children are a good deal like a flock of sheep ; let the 

 leader spring over an obstacle in his path, and though the 

 obstacle be immediately removed, every one of the flock 

 will leap at the spot — what one does, all want to do. 



So it was now: Mary, sitting on the milkiug-stool, no 

 sooner resigned her seat to its legitimate occupant, than 

 eight-year old Maggie insisted on having her turn. 



But the milker had no more time to waste, and the pe- 

 tition was refused. Maggie pouted and withdrew, resigned ? 

 Not a bit of it ! She merely retreated in order to outflank 

 the enemy, and outwit her in her own stronghold. 



Two strong hands were raining down two milk-white 

 streams into the beautiful white foam that was rapidly fill- 

 ing the generous pail, when stealthily another hand, a tiny 

 little hand, slipped in between the hind legs of the patient 

 cow, and grasped a third teat. 



This was too much for the gentle animal's equanimity ; 

 one hind leg sent Maggie in a backward summersault, the 

 other deposited milkmaid, stool, and milk-pail in one con- 

 fused heap on the ground. 



Mary rolled upon the grass in a convulsion of mirth — 

 the astonished milker rose up, with the milk dripping from 

 her head downward, and Maggie, the dumbfounded cul- 

 prit, scrambled to her feet, sobbing, "I didn't know 'ow, 

 'ow she cared, where you stood to — to milk her ; I did n't !" 



Now, we Avere more than eight years old when we first 

 set foot in a Florida cow-pen, and we did know that a cow 

 " cared where you to stood to milk her; " but further than 

 that we knew little, except that it was a lesson to be learned. 

 So we taught ourself how to milk ; and it was well we 



