e and payment.

After her came two farm hands, each leading a horse whose back fairly
curved in under its heavy load. Then followed the herds in order of
rank. First came the bell cow, then Brindle with her wounded horn that
had grown on awry, then Crookhorn, then Darkey, and behind Darkey the
whole long train of cows,--all except two, old Moolley and the pet, Wee
Bonny, who were to stay at home to furnish milk for the people there
and to teach the new calves to follow. After the cows stalked the big
bull, as if acting as rear guard for his herd.

Next came the goats, hurrying along and trying to get ahead; then the
sheep in a tight clump; and behind these, four great pigs and a few
calves; while at the very end of the train came the under-milkmaid, and
Lisbeth Longfrock with her lunch bag on her back.

In the beginning all had gone as gayly as a dance, for almost every one
had pleasant memories of the summer before, and it seemed impossible to
reach the mountain top quickly enough; but as they mounted, the way
became steeper and steeper, and the sun rose higher and higher, burning
their backs. The pigs began to lag behind, trying to branch off at
every side path so as to get a little nap in the shade or cool
themselves in a mudhole. The sheep and goats, feeling the need of
something in their stomachs, slipped aside whenever they spied a young
birch tree whose leaves they could nibble, or a fence to peep through,
or a plot of green grass. The last year's calves, who had not been to
the saeter before, saw no reason at all for hurrying, and made no
attempt at it except when the stick was used upon them.

So Lisbeth Longfrock had to keep rushing off the road into side paths,
behind bushes, into forest thickets and boggy marshes, to drag the
various creatures back into line; and scarcely did she get them safely
into the road from one side before they slipped out again on the other.

She had to take off one of her long knitted garters and tie it around
her waist so that she could tuck her long frock up out of the way; for
she was constantly on the run, coaxing, shouting, and circumventing.

It was a hard struggle. Her light hair became dripping wet and her face
was as red as a half-ripe mountain cranberry; but Lisbeth did not
notice her discomfort, so absorbed was she in what she had to do. The
under-milkmaid would return to the farm with the men when the saeter was
reached. It was Lisbeth who was to have the responsibi