n night and morning
to be milked, with as much regularity as English cows would have done.

The wives of the peons were now taught to milk; and more and more cows
were gradually added to the number, until in six months there were fifty
cows in full milk. Maud and Ethel had now no longer anything to do with
the house, Mrs. Hardy undertaking the entire management of that
department, while the girls had charge of the fowl-house and dairy.

The milk was made partly into butter, partly into fresh cheeses. These
were sent off once a week to catch the steamer for Buenos Ayres. Mr.
Hardy had a light cart made for one horse, and by this conveyance the
butter--starting as soon as the sun went down--arrived in Rosario in
time for the early boat to the capital. It was sent in large baskets
made of rushes, and packed in many layers of cool, fresh leaves; so that
it arrived at Buenos Ayres, forty hours after leaving Mount Pleasant,
perfectly fresh and good. The skim milk was given to the pigs, who had
already increased to quite a numerous colony.

Although they had been planted less than a year, the fruit trees round
the house had thriven in a surprising manner, and already bore a crop of
fruit more than sufficient for the utmost wants of the household.
Peaches and nectarines, apricots and plums, appeared at every meal,
either fresh, stewed, or in puddings, and afforded a very pleasant
change and addition to their diet. As Maud said one day, they would have
been perfectly happy had it not been for the frogs.

These animals were a very great nuisance. They literally swarmed. Do
what they would, the Hardys could not get rid of them. If they would but
have kept out of the house, no one would have minded them; indeed, as
they destroyed a good many insects, they would have been welcome
visitors in the garden; but this was just what they would not do. The
door always stood open, and they evidently considered that as an
invitation to walk in. There they would hide behind boxes, or get under
beds, and into water-jugs and baths, and, in fact, into every possible
corner. They would even get into boots; and these had always to be
shaken before being put on, in case frogs or insects should have taken
up their abode there.

It used at first to be quite a matter of difficulty to know what to do
with the frogs after they were caught; but after a time a covered basket
was kept outside the door, and into this the frogs were popped, and
taken onc