"And do the pretty cows give us coffee, too, papa?"
[Illustration: "And do the pretty cows give us coffee, too, papa."]
"No, no, my silly little Rosy; don't you recollect that we buy that at
the grocer's shop? We must go some day and ask him to let you see it
ground up to powder. The coffee comes from a long, long way off. It
grows on a tree in a very hot country, and looks like little berries
till they put it into a mill and turn a handle. Then the berries are
ground up to powder, and we put some boiling water over the powder, and
when it gets cool we drink it. Haven't you seen mamma pour it out into
the cup and put some sugar and milk in for herself and papa?"
Rosy remembered now; but she had not taken much notice before, because
she did not like coffee at all. She liked her nice milk much better; and
so when she went away with her papa she called out,--
"Good by, dear cowies, and thank you very much for my nice milk."
Rosy wanted to walk round the other side where there was a very gentle,
kind-looking cow, that was not in the water, because she thought that
she would like to stroke her; but her papa told her to look at those two
great horns. And he said that cows did not like little girls to take
liberties with them unless they knew them, and that this cow did not
know her, and might think her very saucy, and poke out her horns to
teach her to keep a proper distance. If she did, he said he thought Rosy
would not like that poke, for it might hurt her, so he advised her to
keep quite out of the good cow's way.
Then she stood at a little distance to watch her drinking, and Rosy's
papa said,--
"See how she enjoys it! Cows like to come here sometimes, like little
girls; but French cows don't get out of their houses so often as English
ones."
"Don't they, papa?" said Rosy. "Then I should think they must often wish
to go to England."