So every one stroked grey fur till their hands were tired, and as
soon as a cat had been stroked enough to make it stop mewing it was
pushed gently away, and another mewing mouser was approached by the
hands of the strokers. And the noise was really more than half
purr when the carpet suddenly appeared in its proper place, and on
it, instead of rows of milk-cans, or even of milk-jugs, there was
a COW. Not a Persian cow, either, nor, most fortunately, a
musk-cow, if there is such a thing, but a smooth, sleek,
dun-coloured Jersey cow, who blinked large soft eyes at the
gas-light and mooed in an amiable if rather inquiring manner.
Anthea had always been afraid of cows; but now she tried to be
brave.
'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.
And nobody laughed. The situation, full of grey mewing cats, was
too serious for that. Then Anthea, with a beating heart, tried to
milk the cow. Next moment the cow had knocked the saucer out of
her hand and trampled on it with one foot, while with the other
three she had walked on a foot each of Robert, Cyril, and Jane.
Jane burst into tears. 'Oh, how much too horrid everything is!'
she cried. 'Come away. Let's go to bed and leave the horrid cats
with the hateful cow. Perhaps somebody will eat somebody else.
And serve them right.'
They did not go to bed, but they had a shivering council in the
drawing-room, which smelt of soot--and, indeed, a heap of this lay
in the fender. There had been no fire in the room since mother
went away, and all the chairs and tables were in the wrong places,
and the chrysanthemums were dead, and the water in the pot nearly
dried up. Anthea wrapped the embroidered woolly sofa blanket round
Jane and herself, while Robert and Cyril had a struggle, silent and