Twins -- Juvenile fiction; World War, 1914-1918 -- France -- Juvenile fiction
The car with the creatures in it was standing on a side track, and the
station agent, looking doubtfully at the girls, led the way to it, and
after the rabbits and fowls had been loaded into the truck, placed a
gangplank for the cows to walk down, and opened the door of the car.
But nothing happened; the cows obstinately refused to step down the
plank.
"Here's a rope," said Mademoiselle, at last, throwing one up to the
agent. "I hoped we shouldn't need it, but I guess we do."
The agent fixed the rope to the horns of one of the cows, and threw the
other end to Mademoiselle. "Now," said he, "pull gently to begin with."
Mademoiselle, pale but valiant, pulled, quietly at first, then harder.
The cow put her head down, braced her feet and backed.
"Come on," cried Mademoiselle to the others, "we'll all have to pull
together."
Any one who could get hold of it seized the rope.
"I never played 'pom pom pull away' with a cow before," quavered
Louise. "I--I--don't feel sure she knows the rules of the game!"
"She'll soon learn," said Mademoiselle, grimly. "Don't welch. Now,
then, one--two--three--pull!"
At the word, they all leaned back and pulled. The cow, yielding
suddenly, shot out of the car like a cork out of a champagne bottle,
and the girls attached to the rope went down like a row of bricks. The
rope flew out of their hands, and the cow went careering down the track
with the rope dangling wildly after her, while the other cow, fired by
her example, came bawling after. When they found grass by the roadside
they became reasonable at once. Mother Meraut then took charge of them,
and, as Kathleen remarked, "that ended the first movement." The second
began when the goats were unloaded. Mademoiselle took no chances with
them. She got the agent to put ropes on them in the first place, and
Kathleen and Louise, cautiously advancing to the plank, held up
propitiatory offerings of grass.
"That's right," laughed Mademoiselle, "leading citizens with bouquets!
Perhaps a speech of welcome might help. They aren't the first old goats
to be received that way."
"Hush!" implored Louise. "My knees are knocking together so I can
hardly stand up now, and suppose they should butt!"
"In the words of the immortal bard 'butt me no butts,'" murmured
Kathleen, as they reached the gang-plank.
The agent, having attached the rope and released the goats from their
moorings, stood back and gave them full access to the open door,
holding the other end of the rope firmly in his hands. "You can take
the ropes when they are safely down the plank," he cried gallantly.
"They need a man to handle them."
"Oh, thank you," said Kathleen and Louise with one voice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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