'Anyway, it can't run after me,' she said to herself 'There isn't
room for it even to begin to run.'
The cow was perfectly placid. She behaved like a strayed duchess
till some one brought a saucer for the milk, and some one else
tried to milk the cow into it. Milking is very difficult. You may
think it is easy, but it is not. All the children were by this
time strung up to a pitch of heroism that would have been
impossible to them in their ordinary condition. Robert and Cyril
held the cow by the horns; and Jane, when she was quite sure that
their end of the cow was quite secure, consented to stand by, ready
to hold the cow by the tail should occasion arise. Anthea, holding
the saucer, now advanced towards the cow. She remembered to have
heard that cows, when milked by strangers, are susceptible to the
soothing influence of the human voice. So, clutching her saucer
very tight, she sought for words to whose soothing influence the
cow might be susceptible. And her memory, troubled by the events
of the night, which seemed to go on and on for ever and ever,
refused to help her with any form of words suitable to address a
Jersey cow in.
'Poor pussy, then. Lie down, then, good dog, lie down!' was all
that she could think of to say, and she said it.
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