THE ANIMAL TREE 13 



— to receive the food. The cow has four stomachs. 

 When she eats, the food goes into the first stomach, 

 where it stays a while to grow soft. After Daisy has 

 filled this first stomach, she goes to rest for a while, 

 brings up the softened food into her mouth, and chews 

 it again. This softened food is called the 'cud.' " 



" Oh, now I know what Rod meant," cried Dodo, 

 clapping her hands, "when he said the coavs were 

 chewing their ' cud.' They were lying under the trees, 

 and didn't seem to have anything near them to eat. 

 I thought cud must be moss or something. Do any 

 other of our animals beside cows have several stom- 

 achs and chew cud ? " 



" Yes, all the animals that belong to the Meat Fam- 

 ily : Sheep and Goats, and, among their wild Ameri- 

 can brothers, the Deer and the very Buffalo that you 

 saw at the show this afternoon." 



" Were those strange beasts any relations of our 

 farm animals ? " asked the children in one breath. 



" Were our farm animals once wild like the Buf- 

 faloes, and did they live far out West ? Who first 

 caught them and made them tame ? " gabbled Dodo, 

 only stopping when her breath failed. 



" Our farm animals were never, in the true sense, 

 natives of this country. In the far back days, before 

 the pale-faced voyagers came to these shores, the Red 

 Brothers had no horses to carry them, nor cows to give 

 them milk. They followed the war-path and game- 

 trail on foot, and their clothing and tent homes were 

 made of the skins of the beasts they took with bow, 

 arrow, and spear. Time was when they had not even 

 spears and arrows. 



