"You were gone such a long time."
Kat gave her mother a great hug.
"We'll stay with you all day today, Mother," she said. "Won't we,
Kit?"
"Yes," said Kit; and he hugged her too.
"And we'll help you just as much as we helped Father yesterday.
Won't we, Kit?"
"More," said Kit.
"I shouldn't wonder!" said Father.
"I shall be glad of help," said Vrouw Vedder, "because Grandma is
coming, and I want everything to be very clean and tidy when she
comes. I'm going first to the pasture to milk the cow. You can go
with me and keep the flies away. That will be a great help."
Vrouw Vedder put a yoke across her shoulders, with hooks hanging
from each end of it. Then she hung a large pail on one of the
hooks, and a brass milk can on the other. She gave Kat a little
pail to carry, and Kit took some switches from the willow tree in
the yard, with which to drive away the flies. Then they all three
started down the road to the pasture.
Pretty soon they came to a little bridge over the canal, which
they had to cross.
"Oh, dear," said Kat, looking down at the water, "I'm scared!"
You see, there was no railing at all to take hold of, and the
bridge was quite narrow.
"Ho! 'Fraidy cat!" said Kit. "I'll go first and show you how."
"And I'll walk behind you," said Vrouw Vedder.
Kat walked very slowly and held on hard to her pail, and so she
got over the bridge safely.
"When I'm four feet and a half high, I'm going to jump over the
canal on a jumping pole," said Kit.
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