she would be eating in
one place, and then she would walk to another. She would not be eating
all the time; a part of the time she would be chewing."

The little boys thought they should like nothing better than to have
some sticks, and keep the cow in one corner of the yard till the
calculations were made.

But Elizabeth Eliza was afraid the Bromwicks would not like it.

"Of course, it would bring all the boys in the school about the place,
and very likely they would make the cow angry."

Agamemnon recalled that Mr. Bromwick once wanted to hire Mr.
Peterkin's lot for his cow.

Mr. Peterkin started up.

"That is true; and of course Mr. Bromwick must have known there was
feed enough for one cow."

"And the reason you didn't let him have it," said Solomon John, "was
that Elizabeth Eliza was afraid of cows."

[Illustration]

"I did not like the idea," said Elizabeth Eliza, "of their cow's
looking at me over the top of the fence, perhaps, when I should be
planting the sweet peas in the garden. I hope our cow would be a quiet
one. I should not like her jumping over the fence into the
flower-beds."

Mr. Peterkin declared that he should buy a cow of the quietest kind.

"I should think something might be done about covering her horns,"
said Mrs. Peterkin; "that seems the most dangerous part. Perhaps they
might be padded with cotton."

Elizabeth Eliza said cows were built so large and clumsy that if they
came at you they could not help knocking you over.

The little boys would prefer having the pasture a great way off. Half
the fun of having a cow would be going up on the hills after her.

Agamemnon thought the feed was not so good on the hills.

"The cow would like it ever so much better," the little boys declared,
"on account of the variety. If she did not like the rocks and the
bushes she could walk round and find the grassy places."

[Illustration]

"I am not sure," said Elizabeth Eliza, "but it would be less dangerous
to keep the cow in the lot behind the house, because she would not be
coming and going, morning and night, in that jerky way the Larkins'
cows come home. They don't mind which gate they rush in at. I should
hate to have our cow dash into our front yard just as I was coming
home of an afternoon."

"That is true," said Mr. Peterkin; "we can have the door of the
cow-house open directly into the pasture, and save the coming and
going."

The little boys were quite disappointed. The cow wou