ostrils, and look out. When Kjersti herself
appeared on the scene, after the girls had begun milking, and talked to
the cows and patted the neck of the bell cow, the creatures at once
realized what day it was. The bell cow threw up her head and bellowed
till the cow house echoed. That was a signal for all the other cows.
They pulled at their chains, swung their tails, and one after another,
along the whole row, joined in a manifold bellow of joyful expectancy
that shook the entire cow house and seemed as if it would never end.
Above the many-voiced chorus could be heard the bellowing of the big
bull, deep and even and good-natured, as if he did not need to exert
himself in the least in order to be heard.

Although everything went so much more speedily to-day than usual, the
time seemed long to Lisbeth Longfrock. When the farm people went into
the house to eat their early breakfast, she could not understand how
they could sit at the table so long. She finished her meal very quickly
and asked if she might not go and let out the smaller animals,--the
sheep and the goats,--so that that would be done. Yes, Kjersti said she
might. In a trice, therefore, she had them out, and as usual they
scattered in every direction, leaping and capering,--all except
Crookhorn, who seized her chance to slink into the cow house through
the open door; but Lisbeth was so busy that she did not notice this.

All at once there came an instant's stillness, as if everything
listened. Then from the farmhouse the tuneful clanging of a deep-toned
bell was heard, and in a moment this was answered by such a joyful
lowing and bellowing, such a sniffing and rattling of chains, that it
seemed as if a thunderstorm were passing over the farm; for when the
animals recognized the sound of that deep-toned bell, which they had
not heard since they were shut up in the cow house the autumn before,
they knew that the time for being let out into the open air was close
at hand.

A formal procession now issued from the farmhouse. Kjersti marched at
the front, carrying the big iron-bound cow collar to which the
deep-toned bell was fastened; next came the head milkmaid, followed by
the under-milkmaid; then the girls who worked in the farmhouse; and
then the two farm hands, with thick sticks, which they afterwards dealt
out to the company, giving one to Lisbeth as well as to the rest. Last
of all came Bearhunter, who also wanted to have a part in what was
going on.