3 1 8 Next to the Ground 



ing, and crowding one upon another, in place 

 of keeping the proper orderly rank. Then 

 the black milk-maids waiting in the cow-pens 

 nodded as they heard the bell jangling, and 

 said to the calf-minders : " Ah, ha ! Old Sis 

 Bell Cow comin' home a-gilpin ! Reckon 

 she sees ha'nts out dar in the woods." Since 

 the milk-maids were wholly unlettered and 

 had never heard of John Gilpin, it is at least 

 a tenable supposition that gilpin, an old Eng- 

 lish word for rapid motion, was chosen by 

 Cowper as an emblematic name for his hero 

 of the fast and furious ride. 



In the farmlands a calf's weaning age is 

 indefinite; it runs from six months to two 

 years. At each milking the calves are 

 suckled. If there are cows a plenty, a young 

 calf gets two teats — that is, all the milk in 

 them, besides sucking the other two, until 

 the froth ropes from his mouth. Let alone, 

 he will hang on to the first teat seized, until 

 milk no longer flows freely into his mouth, 

 then change to the others, one after another, 

 and at last go back to the first, sucking it 

 till it looks like a dry wrinkled whiffet, then 

 hunching vigorously to make the last drops 

 of cream come down. Cows can and do 

 hold up their milk. To do it, they stand 

 with the backbone slightly arched, the feet 

 braced and squarely under them, instead of 



