But Elizabeth Eliza was afraid the Bromwicks would not like it.
“Of course, it would bring all the boys in the school about the place, and very likely they would make the cow angry.”
Agamemnon recalled that Mr. Bromwick once wanted to hire Mr. Peterkin’s lot for his cow.
“That is true; and of course Mr. Bromwick must have known there was feed enough for one cow.”
“And the reason you didn’t let him have it,” said Solomon John, “was that Elizabeth Eliza was afraid of cows.”
“I did not like the idea,” said Elizabeth Eliza, “of their cow’s looking at me over the top of the fence, perhaps, when I should be planting the sweet peas in the garden. I hope our cow would be a quiet one. I should not like her jumping over the fence into the flower-beds.”
Mr. Peterkin declared that he should buy a cow of the quietest kind.
“I should think something might be done about covering her horns,” said Mrs.
Peterkin; “that seems the most dangerous part. Perhaps they might be padded with cotton.”
Elizabeth Eliza said cows were built so large and clumsy, that if they came at you they could not help knocking you over.
The little boys would prefer having the pasture a great way off. Half the fun of having a cow would be going up on the hills after her.
Agamemnon thought the feed was not so good on the hills.
“The cow would like it ever so much better,” the little boys declared, “on account of the variety. If she did not like the rocks and the bushes, she could walk round and find the grassy places.”
“I am not sure,” said Elizabeth Eliza, “but it would be less dangerous to keep the cow in the lot behind the house, because she would not be coming and going, morning and night, in that jerky way the Larkins’ cows come home. They don’t mind which gate they rush in at. I should hate to have our cow dash into our front yard just as I was coming home of an afternoon.”
“That is true,” said Mr. Peterkin; “we can have the door of the cow-house open directly into the pasture, and save the coming and going.”
The little boys were quite disappointed. The cow would miss the exercise, and they would lose a great pleasure.
Solomon John suggested that they might sit on the fence and watch the cow.
It was decided to keep the cow in their own pasture; and as they were to put on an end kitchen, it would be perfectly easy to build a dairy.