Lillian Elizabeth Roy

“ When Natalie joined Janet at the pig pen and heard how Rachel blamed the pigs for dropping the hammer on her inflamed joint, Natalie laughed and said, wisely: “She was peeved, Janet, because you knew something about pigs that she had never heard of before. I’ve learned that Rachel loves to be referred to for information when it touches anything she had down south. She considers pigs a personal line that she excels in, and such a surprise as having pigs yearn for a bath was too much for her.” ”

“ If every one looked exactly like everyone else, or if all had the same desires and tastes in everything, can you picture a more tiresome place to live on than our earth? But, because everyone has an individual appearance and individual ways and desires, the world is individual, also.”
Belle had crept up behind Mrs. James as she spoke the last words, and now she smiled as she said: “You’re right, Jimmy! I’ve told Frances about the different farm houses I’ve visited in these quests for furniture, and not only the homes, but the furnishings and owners of them are so different from each other!” ”

“ James.
“No,” sighed Janet, hopelessly. “It doesn’t pay to buy old stock! I’m beginning to learn that much. I used old eggs to hatch out and I lost more than a week’s valuable time by it. If I buy an old cow just because she is cheap, I shall have funeral bills to pay, and the insurance costs more on old lives.”
Mrs. James could not restrain a hearty laugh at Janet’s words, although she knew the girl was very serious over the matter.
“I guess I’ll stick to the pigs and chickens this year, and save money so I can buy a cow next year—because that’s where my fortune can be made!” ”

“ So the scouts jumped—some inside the automobile, some on the running board where they clung for dear life while Frances tore out of the yard, turning the corner of the fence on two wheels and just missing the gate-post by the width of a hair. On down the road sped the machine, completely enveloped in the dust it raised.
Frances was so used to the road by this time that she knew every rut, every rock, and every obstacle in the way from Green Hill Farm to Four Corners store. ”

“ Natalie planted so many seeds, besides the plants given her, that I fear we shall ‘go on’ as the brook in the poem ‘forever’—eating lettuce.”
“Well, it’s better to have too much of a good thing than not enough,” declared Frances, and Mrs. James agreed silently with that statement by nodding her head. “Then I see Janet’s kingdom doing so fine! the pigs expanding like a gas-filled balloon ever since Sue came to the farm. Susy growing stronger and more mischievous every day. The hens laying eggs as if for dear life. ”

“ For the old hens were no different than they were when Janet purchased them from Ames, and the fun and fortune to be had from the cow was but the vision created by a few cheerful words from a sympathetic friend. Still, if we must dream at all, let us have happy dreams instead of nightmares. ”

“ Then, when butter is made, you can buy the skim-milk for your pigs at a small price. What do you say?”
“I say it is great! Let’s go and tell the other girls!” cried Janet, eagerly.
As Mrs. James led the way over to Norma’s flower beds where that worker was digging and planting without stopping to mop her perspiring brow, Janet thought to herself “This old world isn’t such a bad place to live in, after all!”
What a difference a few eggs and a plan for a cow made in her sense of things. ”

“ For they will scatter and the queen will fly away never to return to the old home.
“Or she may try to re-enter her own old hive and be stung to death by the young queen and her subjects who are now ruling the place. In cases where a princess-queen leaves home to start a swarm, the swarm is never as large or difficult to manage, as the young queen seldom has as many devoted subjects to follow her as an old queen has.”
“Oh, how interesting, Mrs. Tompkins,” exclaimed Janet.
“Yes, we will be glad to have some bees and watch them work,” added Norma. ”

“ I have seen those tumbler pigeons of yours do this until they remind me of an aviator doing the loop-the-loop in his aero-plane,” said Janet
“Pigeons is easy to rear, but you don’t want to take everything at once and not be able to care for anything,” was Farmer Ames’ wise advice.
“I don’t think pigeons are so easy to raise, Uncle,” was Dorothy’s opinion. “They want quiet and protection, as they never fight for their lives, like chickens and other kinds of fowl do. A cat or a rat can catch and kill a pigeon without combat from the victim. ”

“ What difference does it make whether the bees are with us or with some one else?” said Janet.
“I don’t know exactly, but I’ve heard that bees hate to be moved about,” returned Natalie.
Then Mrs. James explained: “Bees are very sensitive to environment. And a careful bee-farmer will not move his hives to any strange locality after the inmates are accustomed to certain familiar surroundings. If he has to do any moving he manages to do it in winter, or when the bees swarm.” ”

“ Rachel stood so amazed at hearing that a pig would take a bath if given the opportunity, that she unconsciously dropped the hammer. Unfortunately it struck on a pet bunion and made Rachel sit down on the ground and hold her injured joint while she rocked to and fro with the pain.
Then she got up and snarled angrily, while she shook a fist at the innocent porkers: “Dat settles it! Yoh fix your own pen, you squeelin’ critters!” and away she went to the house. ”

“ I want a cow of not more than four years of age, a cross between an Alderney and a Guernsey—or perhaps a strain of Jersey in her. And I won’t pay more than half the price you ask for that beef,” was Mrs. James’ retort.
“Wouldn’t you care to look at any of the others as long as you are here?” anxiously asked the man, seeing his customer was going away.
“No, I didn’t see a single cow in that lot that I’d pay to feed.”
“You said you had a calf for sale, but I did not see any,” was Janet’s comment at this point.
“I don’t keep the calf in the lot with the big cows. Do you want to see her?” ”

“ Enough garden lettuce was gathered to last for three days at the rate of three meals per day, but Rachel kept that secret to herself. Then just as Natalie had bathed her warm face and seated herself once more on the breezy porch, Hester Tompkins ran in at the side gate and called to Mrs. James and the girls.
“Mother sent me post-haste to tell you that a great swarm of bees was found down the road about a quarter of a mile from us. No one knows whose it is, and there it hangs. If we delay much longer in hiving it it will wander away and be lost.” ”

“ We’ll divide it into shares of so much a share. No stockholder can own more than one share, then we won’t feel jealous of each other. We will pay all costs out of the capital paid in for stock and we will pay all dividends twice a month, from the money we take in from camp and from the house and from Janet’s pigs. Now, how is that?” Natalie’s exultant face showed what she thought of her plan.
The others laughed at the very idea of incorporating a cow, and Mrs. James remarked humorously: “Natalie inherits the gift of high finance.” ”

“ When Mrs. James ran to join the distressed girls, she examined the drying plants and then said: “Sue didn’t do all this, Natalie. A cut-worm has gone through your garden during the night. Perhaps the flashlight attracted him here and then he did his damage.”
“But Sue ate the cabbages!” was Natalie’s only satisfaction.
“Yes, and the Corporation must pay for them,” said Mrs. James.
All but Janet and Natalie went slowly back to the house, then the former said consolingly: “Nat, I’ll pay for those poor vines and plants, because I can feed them to my pigs and save on the feed.” ”

“ Everyone laughed at Janet’s form of occupation, but Mrs. James said: “Procrastination never succeeded when I lived on a farm. Farming is one form of work that brooks of no postponements.”
“I’ll get out the car now, Janet, and we’ll run over to Ames and then drive on to the store for the white-wash,” offered Frances.
“I’ll go with you, Janet, and help you pick out good hens from Uncle’s flock,” added Dorothy Ames.
“And when you come back with the alcohol and white-wash, we experienced farm scouts will help you clean the fowl and white-wash the coops,” added Nancy. ”

“ We would all take turns. One would drive the cow to pasture in the morning, another bring her home at night. One must keep the pails and pans clean, another look after the feed. Still another will milk and another churn butter. Every week we will change about so that each one gets an opportunity to learn how to do all the work.”
“But who will get the profit? and who will buy the cow?” wondered Janet, the idea not altogether displeasing as long as she felt she could not own the cow herself. ”

“ THE POULTRY GO ON STRIKE
The five girls of Green Hill walked along the country road a ways with the girls from the village, and then returned to the farm. As they turned in at the gate opening to the side-path leading to the porch, they distinctly heard the pigs squealing as if they were being tortured. They found Rachel in a piazza rocker, swaying back and forth furiously while she strained her eyes in the semi-darkness for a sight of the delinquent stock-scout. The moment she heard the group of girls as they approached the house, she shouted angrily:
“Is dat Janet wid you-all?” ”

“ A list of the grain was made and ordered from the mill that stood on the road to White Plains, and then Janet felt more resigned to stock-raising than she had been all that day.
On the way home Natalie remarked: “I should think any animal would grow big and fat on such a diet as Tompkins suggests.”
“I was thinking that we could feed the pigs your garden greens when we haven’t any left at the house,” was Janet’s reply.
“No siree! My garden greens stay exactly where they are—in the ground. When they are grown enough to harvest I’ll see that we eat them ourselves,” she said. ”

“ Frances you are quite right! I am so glad you think this way, as it shows that you have actually found the great thing your so-called jitney service has done for you. Do you not see that all these discoveries made by you would never have been made if you stayed at Green Hill and raised vegetables or stock? You can strive for and win badges in lines the other girls have not given a thought to. But you can interest them in these pursuits, just as they have interested you in stock and vegetables so that you actually wanted to give up motoring for their studies. ”

“ All within hearing of that shriek ran to comfort her.
“Just look at what that terrible cow did to my beauties!” cried Natalie, pointing at several tomato vines which were broken off short at the soil and lay wilting. Many cabbages were partly chewed off their stems, and a number of kohl-rabi and turnips were cut off short like the tomato vines, and were drying in the sun. ”

“ Sam had followed the girls when Ames drove to the barn yard, and he now said soothingly: “Neber mind dat, Miss Janet. Dey dies awful easy when dey is little. Chicken hawks love goslin’s, and so do black snakes. Cats are plentful in the country, too, and dey kills more chicks and goslin’s—my! Besides, lots will die of disease, so you won’t have to spend much money on corn by fall.”
“I don’t see any nourishment in that, after my money has been spent for the goslings!” snapped Janet, peevishly. ”

“ Janet remembered the chickens, and went to gather any eggs laid since the previous noon. In passing the pig pen on her way to the chicken coop, she stopped to call to the pigs. To her shocked horror she saw Seizer stiffened out near the trough, with his four little hoofs straight out before him. His body was horribly distended and his tongue was discolored and hanging out of his mouth.
Janet tore back to the house, crying loudly all the way. By the time she reached the kitchen stoop every one was running to find out what new calamity had fallen upon the heads of the scouts. ”

“ Thereafter no one heard further that Janet wished to dispose of her business interests.
Early Saturday morning the scouts from the house were hanging onto the gate or over the picket fence, watching for the farmer who was to bring the cow and Susy. Mrs. James finally came down the steps of the porch and crossed the lawn to join them.
“Girls that lawn is a sight! It should have been mowed long ago, but we have had so much to think and plan about that it was forgotten.”
“Why mow it now just as the cow is coming. Let her eat off the tops,” suggested Natalie, to the amusement of her companions. ”

“ James.
“It won’t be very pleasant to have to hold my hand in the pan of milk every time Susy wants to eat. I think we ought to wean her at once from a bad habit like that,” was Janet’s comment
“It is much like having a baby that sucks its thumb when it is hungry. But there is no aftermath with a calf while there are adnoids, dwarfed arch in the mouth, enlarged tonsils, and many other serious things that develop from thumb, or nipple sucking. I never see a child with a so-called ‘mother’s comfort’ in its mouth that I do not want to scream at the ignorant woman who allows it.” ”