or that they drank very much.
But for that reason Mr. Peterkin thought it would be well to have a
cow, to encourage the family to drink more, as he felt it would be so
healthy.

Mrs. Peterkin recalled the troubles of the last cold winter, and
how near they came to starving, when they were shut up in a severe
snow-storm, and the water-pipes burst, and the milk was frozen. If
the cow-shed could open out of the wood-shed, such trouble might be
prevented.

Tony Larkin was to come over and milk the cow every morning, and
Agamemnon and Solomon John agreed to learn how to milk, in case Tony
should be "snowed up," or have the whooping-cough in the course of the
winter. The little boys thought they knew how already.

But if they were to have three or four pailfuls of milk every day, it
was important to know where to keep it.

"One way will be," said Mrs. Peterkin, "to use a great deal every day.
We will make butter."

"That will be admirable," thought Mr. Peterkin.

"And custards," suggested Solomon John.

"And syllabub," said Elizabeth Eliza.

"And cocoa-nut cakes," exclaimed the little boys.

"We don't need the milk for cocoa-nut cakes," said Mrs. Peterkin.

The little boys thought they might have a cocoa-nut tree instead of
a cow. You could have the milk from the cocoa-nuts, and it would be
pleasant climbing the tree, and you would not have to feed it.

"Yes," said Mr. Peterkin, "we shall have to feed the cow."

"Where shall we pasture her?" asked Agamemnon.

"Up on the hills, up on the hills," exclaimed the little boys, "where
there are a great many bars to take down, and huckleberry-bushes!"

Mr. Peterkin had been thinking of their own little lot behind the house.

"But I don't know," he said, "but the cow might eat off all the grass in
one day, and there would not be any left for to-morrow, unless the grass
grew fast enough every night."

Agamemnon said it would depend upon the season. In a rainy season the
grass would come up very fast, in a drought it might not grow at all.

"I suppose," said Mrs. Peterkin, "that is the worst of having a
cow,--there might be a drought."

Mr. Peterkin thought they might make some calculation from the quantity
of grass in the lot.

Solomon John suggested that measurements might be made by seeing how
much grass the Bromwicks' cow, opposite them, eat up in a day.

The little boys agreed to go over and spend the day on the Bromwicks'
fence, and take an observation.