Boy life on the prairie . d Lincoln once caughthim knitting. Only his love of horses and his fairlygood horsemanship saved Milton from being called a girl-boy. All the boys but Ranee had to milk cows, which wasa peculiarly hateful task in summer, when the flieswere bad, and worse in autumn, when the cold rainscame on. It made their hands ache, and the cowssteaming hot sides were unpleasant to the touch, andthey were liable at any moment to kick into the pail,in their efforts to drive off the flies. The boys hada trick of driving their heads hard in the cows flank,so she could not bring forward
Boy life on the prairie . d Lincoln once caughthim knitting. Only his love of horses and his fairlygood horsemanship saved Milton from being called a girl-boy. All the boys but Ranee had to milk cows, which wasa peculiarly hateful task in summer, when the flieswere bad, and worse in autumn, when the cold rainscame on. It made their hands ache, and the cowssteaming hot sides were unpleasant to the touch, andthey were liable at any moment to kick into the pail,in their efforts to drive off the flies. The boys hada trick of driving their heads hard in the cows flank,so she could not bring forward her leg at all. Theheavy tail was also a nuisance, and was tied by the long Herding the Cattle lOl hairs around the cows own leg. Humbolt Bunn tiedit to the strap of his boot — and regretted it very muchafterwards. As the weather grew cold, the boys had a trick ofurging the sleeping cows to their hoofs very gently, inorder that their own bare feet might rest on the groundwhich the cows had warmed during the night. Lin-. coln often went out to milk barefooted when the groundwas white with frost. In midsummer they wore no shoes at all, exceptwhen they went to Sunday-school or to town. Theirfeet resembled toad backs, their mother often said,and when ordered to wash their feet, they ran out intothe tall grass, cleansed them in the dew, running back-ward in order to wash their heels. They were gener-ally limping from a bruise or a brier or some othercause, but accepted each wound as one of the unavoid-able things of human life. There were always a lot of calves to be fed, and they I02 Boy Life on the Prairie did not like that very well, either, for they were noisyand unruly little brutes. They were sure to blow ablast of milk upon you if you did not watch out, andeach one tried hard to steal the others portion, andoften ended by spilling it all. The pigs were lesstrouble. They had but to empty the pail into a longtrough and let them race for it. The boys taught thecalves to drink
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