CHAPTER X
JANET ADDS TO HER STOCK FAMILY
That evening at supper Janet was unusually quiet and Natalie remarked it. “Well,” said Janet despondently. “I was wondering if one of the scouts would buy out my business. I’m going back home.”
“Good gracious! You really do not mean that!” exclaimed the girls in chorus.
“I may as well, what’s the use of staying here and not succeeding in anything.”
“But Janet, you are just beginning to raise your stock,” argued Mrs. James.
“I’m not raising anything but trouble, so far as I can see,” sighed Janet.
“If you think you are having such a time of it, what do you think about poor me! But I haven’t said I would sell out,” was Natalie’s comment.
“Nat is coming right up as Independent Individual, isn’t she,” laughed Belle.
“Yes and Jan is falling behind to the rear. If she isn’t careful she’ll have to resign her place in favor of Natalie, as ring-leader of us girls,” added Frances. These remarks were made to enthuse Janet with a little more spirit to resist circumstances.
“It would really be a pity for Janet to leave us now just when Susy is about to join us,” ventured Mrs. James, wisely.
“Oh, to-morrow is Saturday, isn’t it?” exclaimed the girls, and Janet smiled at the thought of the calf. Thereafter no one heard further that Janet wished to dispose of her business interests.
Early Saturday morning the scouts from the house were hanging onto the gate or over the picket fence, watching for the farmer who was to bring the cow and Susy. Mrs. James finally came down the steps of the porch and crossed the lawn to join them.
“Girls that lawn is a sight! It should have been mowed long ago, but we have had so much to think and plan about that it was forgotten.”
“Why mow it now just as the cow is coming. Let her eat off the tops,” suggested Natalie, to the amusement of her companions.
“That’s a good idea, Jimmy,” added Janet. “Instead of taking Sue to pasture in the field we will let her graze here.”
“Besides, Jimmy,” said Norma, “we could never run a blade through that grass. It will need a scythe, first”
“And that means Farmer Ames for half a day again,” sighed Mrs. James, thinking of the cost of keeping a lawn in order.
“We’ll just have Folsom tether Sue out here when she comes and we’ll see how much grass she can cut down in a day,” laughed Belle.
“Couldn’t we tether the calf here, too? You always see a calf out in pasture with her mother,” remarked Frances.
The members of Solomon’s Seal Camp appeared now and joined the others to await the coming of their corporation capital. Not long after the scouts came to the farm-house, Dorothy Ames was seen hurrying along the country road. Then she explained that she wanted to see Sue and Susy and appraise them from her experience with cattle. Finally Nancy Sherman and Hester Tompkins came from Four Corners and the membership of the two scout patrols was complete.
The girls began to feel impatient, and Janet even ventured to say: “Maybe that old farmer won’t bring them to-day,” when a heavy lumbering farm wagon was seen coming down the road.
The cow was tethered on the lawn as Mrs. James directed the farmer to do, and the calf was taken to the rear-grass plot and staked there because Folsom said the cow had better not see too much of her calf or she would not graze, and then there would be no milk. As plenty of milk was the great objective of the corporation the scouts were careful to carry out the man’s advice.
Rachel and Sambo lost no time in joining the admiring owners of Sue, and then arose a debate between the Four Corners’ farmer girls and those of Solomon’s Seal on one side, with Rachel, Sambo, Mrs. James and her girls on the other side, as to the best points of the cow. As each one had the right of her own opinion, being a shareholder in the cow, there was a general “kaffe-klatch” without the kaffe.
Finally, the admiring owners grew breathless and could find no new term in which to voice their admiration and satisfaction of Sue, so they transferred their remaining opinions to the calf who was rolling and kicking playfully upon the back lawn.
“Isn’t she just too darling for anything!” sighed Janet.
“Aren’t you glad you didn’t find a customer for your business?” added Natalie, grinning at her chum.
This started the disclosure that Janet had wanted to go home the previous evening because of her troubles with the stock.
“Did you see to it, Janet, that the chicken-house and fences were white-washed?” asked Mrs. James.
“No, Frances is to bring back the lime from Four Corners when she goes to the store this morning,” was Janet’s excuse.
“What about the hens? Did you walk over to Ames and see if he would exchange them for you?” persisted Mrs. James.
“Now you know I didn’t, Jimmy! Haven’t I been busy all morning watching for Susy?”
Everyone laughed at Janet’s form of occupation, but Mrs. James said: “Procrastination never succeeded when I lived on a farm. Farming is one form of work that brooks of no postponements.”
“I’ll get out the car now, Janet, and we’ll run over to Ames and then drive on to the store for the white-wash,” offered Frances.
“I’ll go with you, Janet, and help you pick out good hens from Uncle’s flock,” added Dorothy Ames.
“And when you come back with the alcohol and white-wash, we experienced farm scouts will help you clean the fowl and white-wash the coops,” added Nancy.
Dorothy went with Janet to help Sam catch the chickens which had to go back to their former owner, but the little chicks and the setting hen were left undisturbed. When the prisoners had been placed in sacks the stock scouts, Dorothy Ames and Janet and the chickens were stowed away in the car.
When Dorothy explained to her uncle about the hens, he shook his head slowly as he replied: “I tried my best to make Janet buy young hens but she thought I was doin’ her out of a bargain. Now she has seen for herself!”
Janet admitted the fact, and Farmer Ames led the girls to the large chicken-run to permit them to make another choice.
“If I were you, Janet, I’d take some Rhode Island Red hens and a rooster. They may not look so large but they are the best layers and smallest eaters of all other well-known kinds of hens,” whispered Dorothy, when the three girls stood wondering what to do.
“I tole Janet, when she was here afore, to take a few guinea-hens, cause they are fine layers, you know, Dot,” added Mr. Ames.
“I’d much rather have a few ducks, Mr. Ames,” said Janet.
“But I warned you that ducks is hard to keep well unless you make a special business of them. Geese is much easier to keep.”
“Well, then, I’ll take a few geese instead of guinea-hens. Somehow or other, I despise their struts, and their shrill cries, and the speckles on their feathers!” declared Janet.
These three reasons for not wanting guinea-hens made the farmer laugh with amusement. He never as much as saw one of those objectionable features with his guinea-hens. He saw the business interest in their slight need of food and the eggs they laid.
So Rhode Island Reds were taken in place of the old hens and rooster, and then Janet felt that she owed Mr. Ames an extra sale for taking so much trouble with her exchanges. He had thrown the sacks in which the infested hens had come, out upon the ground and taken new bags for the Rhode Island fowl so they need not be troubled with the plague of a poulterer.
“Now I’ll pick out the geese,” said Janet, having quickly figured up the cost and deciding that she could afford them.
“Do you want to pick them out yourself?” asked Ames.
“No, I am going to trust to Dorothy’s and your wisdom,” was Janet’s rejoinder.
“Then I’d say, don’t take a gander and geese, Janet,” was Dorothy’s advice, “take goslings. They are very much cheaper and easier to feed and care for.”
“Besides, they grow up fast, to geese and ganders, Miss Janet,” supplemented the farmer.
“I never thought of the goslings. They’ll be much cuter, too,” was Janet’s delighted reply. “How many goslings could I get for the price of a gander and four geese?”
“I can let you have ’bout twenty goslings,” estimated Farmer Ames.
“Oh, what a lot. Then I’ll take goslings, by all means!”
“Better not take them now, ’cause you’ll want to fix up a separate coop and yard for ’em. If you let them run with the hens, they’ll soon have their down picked off and then they’ll get nipped and bitten by the hens that don’t agree, nohow, with geese.”
“Will you bring them over to Green Hill for me, some time when you pass there?” asked Janet.
“Yeh. And I should advise you to leave the hens here until that chicken house is well cleaned and ready for new chickens. All them chicks have to be bathed, you know, to keep lice from increasing and getting on the Rhode Island Reds.”
As they left the chicken yard Janet saw the pigeons on the barn-roof, cooing and billing tenderly.
“Dear me, I do so want to have pigeons, too. I love to watch them mount up in the sky and drop like a stone until they almost reach the ground, and then suddenly soar again. I have seen those tumbler pigeons of yours do this until they remind me of an aviator doing the loop-the-loop in his aero-plane,” said Janet
“Pigeons is easy to rear, but you don’t want to take everything at once and not be able to care for anything,” was Farmer Ames’ wise advice.
“I don’t think pigeons are so easy to raise, Uncle,” was Dorothy’s opinion. “They want quiet and protection, as they never fight for their lives, like chickens and other kinds of fowl do. A cat or a rat can catch and kill a pigeon without combat from the victim. One has to have a mighty good pigeon-loft that is proof against prowlers, if one wants to keep the birds.”
“I forgot you had so many pigeons, Dorothy. I think I’ll come over and let you show me how to care for them before I buy any,” remarked Janet.
Mr. Ames considered this a wise plan, and so the girls left him with his promise to deliver the chickens and goslings as soon as the coops were in order to receive them. Then Frances drove to Four Corners for the mail, and Janet bought a white-wash brush and the materials with which to cleanse the coops.
The scouts all helped with the task of white-washing the house and bathing the chicks. Mrs. James advised the girls not to disturb the setting hen but to let her handle that important part of the work.
It was sunset before the work was completed, but once it was done, Janet felt that her friends had accomplished a great deed for her future success—to say nothing of future physical comfort.
“If only we could send word to Ames that everything is ready for the chickens,” said Natalie, as they started for the house.
“To-morrer is Sunday, you know,” was Sam’s reminder.
“Oh pshaw! I forgot all about it,” said Janet.
“Then Janet will lose another day without getting any eggs from her hens,” was Natalie’s disturbing suggestion.
“I don’t see why I can’t go over now and get them,” said Janet.
“What have you decided to do about Susy. Has she a shed to sleep in?” said Mrs. James, calmly.
Janet turned and looked at Sam. He shook his head.
“Can’t Susy sleep in the barn for one night?” asked Janet.
“I don’t know why she couldn’t, but it isn’t fair to the calf to make her pay in discomforts just to humor her mistress with the chickens.”
The scouts had stood around listening to this conversation, and now they whispered with Miss Mason. The result was the captain offered to help Janet, not only to get the hens that evening but also to clean out a shed and repair it if necessary, for Susy’s tenancy.
“Then you all must be my guests to supper at the house. I won’t think of keeping you here so late for my affairs and then let you go back to camp and cook your supper. If Rachel can arrange for so many extras, it will be great fun for us all,” said Janet.
Rachel was always glad to have company and she hastily planned. “We kin eat on the side porch where dey is enough room. Sam kin wait on table, and I will cook and serb. Go along, honey, we’ll hab a fine time!”
This important event being satisfactorily settled between Janet, Rachel and the scouts, all hands went to work again and in another hour’s time, the shed was so far completed that Frances was dispatched for the chickens. The goslings had to remain with Ames until their coops were ready on Monday.
When the scouts had completed the remodelled homes for Susy and the cow, they triumphantly left the barn yard, eagerly planning about the gosling’s coop and the pigeon loft they said they would help build for Janet. These tests in carpentry would win each scout the badge she desired.
As the procession reached the house they were surprised to find that Rachel had already milked the cow and was now busy straining the milk. Sue stood quietly waiting at the end of the lane for Sam to show her to her hotel and then give her her supper.
The girls were disappointed that they had not been present at the very first milking of their capital stock asset, but Rachel did not confess that she was not so sure of her old-time cleverness at milking and preferred to experiment without an audience. Now that she found she had not forgotten the knack of milking, she was as eager to show off to the others as they were to see her do the work.
Frances brought home the chickens before supper was ready, and Janet jumped in the car as it came past the side-porch, to accompany Frances and Dorothy to the barnyard. Then the hens and roosters were taken inside the chicken-house and left to seek their roosts for the night. They had been fed before the transference took place, so there was nothing to disturb them again that night.
That supper was a gay one, with scouts sitting on the steps, sitting on boxes, and sitting on the floor of the piazza, eating, drinking and making merry, because all troubles seemed past and the future beamed brightly for them.
When the babel of voices began to quiet somewhat, Miss Mason remarked: “If a swarm of bees has to be hived on a Sunday what would you scouts do?”
“Why, hive them, of course,” was Janet’s sensible reply.
“Just the same as if we fed the cow, or removed the eggs from the chicken-nests,” explained Natalie.
“Well, I was wondering if Mrs. Tompkins would do that, as she is very particular about Sunday work, you know,” mused Miss Mason.
“She’s a good woman and a conscientious one, but I would not say she was a fanatic. Let us remember the words of the Master when he rebuked the hypocrits with the question of ‘Who would not save a sheep on the Sabbath Day if it was in danger?’” said Mrs. James.
“Now that reminds me, Jimmy! When we come across any sheep that may be for sale, I think it would be most interesting to have one or two on the farm, don’t you?” said Janet.
“Oh, sheep are so interesting!” cried Norma.
“I love to watch them graze in a field,” added Natalie. “And we have such a large field that it won’t cost Janet anything.”
“What are sheep good for, anyway?” asked Practical Frances.
“Goodness me! Didn’t you know that wool came from sheep?” exclaimed Janet, amazed at such ignorance.
“I know it, but you need a flock of sheep to derive any results from them. The wool of one sheep won’t make a shirt.”
When the laughter this remark created had subsided, Mrs. James said: “We won’t discuss the sheep question until we have finished housing and caring for the other stock Janet has thrust upon us. We have enough work cut out for the next few days without planning for sheep.”
When the scouts bid their hostess good-night, they left with the plans all arranged for early Monday morning. The coop for the goslings was to be built, and a pigeon loft constructed in the gable end of the barn.