r turned
the separator. He took the separator apart and carried it up to his
mother to be washed. Nancy helped and talked. Only she really talked
more than she helped!

Eben's talk ran much on cows. His poor mother read all she could in the
encyclopedia, but even then she couldn't answer all his questions. Why
does a cow have four stomachs? Why does her food come back to be chewed?
Why does she chew sideways? Why does she have to be milked twice a day?
Why doesn't she get out of the way when an auto comes down the road?
When Eben asked his father these things the farmer would shake his head
and answer, "I guess it's just because she's a cow."

There came a very exciting day at Green Mountain Farm. For twenty years
Andrew Brewster and his men had milked his cows morning and evening. His
hands were hard from the practice. The children loved to watch him milk.
With every pull of his strong hands he made a fine white stream of milk
shoot into the pail, squirt, squirt, squirt. Eben had often tried, but
pull as he would, he could only get out a few drops. And even as Andrew
Brewster had milked his cows morning and evening until his hands were
horny, so had his father done before him. Yes, and his father's father,
too. For three generations of Brewsters had hardened their hands milking
cows on Green Mountain Farm. Then there came this exciting day, and a
new way of milking began at the big red barn.

A milking machine was put in. It ran by a wonderful little puffing
gasolene engine. It milked two cows at once. And it milked all
twenty-six of them in twenty minutes. Andrew Brewster could manage the
whole herd alone with what help Eben could give him. It was a great day
for him. It was a great day for Eben and Nancy too.

PART 2

There came another day which was even more exciting for the two children
than when the milking machine was put into the big red barn. This story
is really about that day. Eben was then ten years old and Nancy seven.
Their father and mother had gone for the day to a county fair. The two
children were to be alone all day, which made up for not going to the
fair. The children had long since eaten the cold dinner their mother
had left for them. They had done all their chores too. Nancy had
gathered the eggs and Eben had chopped the kindling and brought in the
wood. They had fed the baby chickens and given them water. Then they had
gone to the woods for an afternoon climb over the big rocks and a wade