"Here." She handed the cork to Mary, who looked over to Grand Dad Jim. "Go ahead," he said, "hand me the handle, and try to work the cork up in there." "It's too big!" wailed Mary, her hands and arms covered in milk. Quickly Grand Dad Jim flipped open his wood carving knife. "Give it to me!" In a flash he cut away part of the bottom of the cork. "Try again!" He handed the cork back to Mary. Pushing with all of her might against the flowing milk she got the cork to stay! "It's a perfect fit !" she cried. The milk stopped flowing. "But," said Grand Dad Jim, "it won't hold. We've GOT to find that screw!" Mary plopped down on the soggy bottomed dog food bag, Emily, on Grand Dad Jim's lap and for a moment, they all were silent. The room was filled with relief and sorrow and the sounds of milk being lapped up from the puddles in the yard. As they sat there they heard the familiar clanking of Friend Farmer's old truck. As he pulled into the yard, seeing Ruffles and all of the cats feasting on milk, Friend Farmer burst out of his truck. "Whaaaaaa????????????" Mary and Emily came to him through that bright yellow door, both of them crying again. Between gulps and tears and the happy barking of Ruffles, they tried to explain. "You weren't here....and........and......." "We waited and......we WAITED......and....." "......the families.......breakfast......" "we'd helped you............before........and.....we......" ".......we knew how.........we THOUGHT we knew......." Grand Dad Jim patted his lap for Emily to return to him. Mary ran into the open arms of Hilde, both girls spbbing.
"We just ran into town," Friend Farmer said. "This morning when I came out to get started, I noticed that, that old screw was really loose. We don't have any more replacements. I used the last one on the tractor the other day. So I just ran into town to get a couple............how...............how much is gone?" He pulled down the ladder (this tank is SO BIG, as I have said, to get to the lid you have to climb a ladder that is kept clamped to the top of the tank.) He unscrewd the lid and with a crank and pully, lifted if off. Looking deep inside he said, "About half." He cranked the lid back in place, climbed down the ladder and clamped it. Looking at the floor he shook his head. "That's a real loss," he said quietly. Instantly Mary and Emily were on their feet, jumping around Friend Farmer. "Oh ! We'll pay for it" they said together, "I can baby-sit!" "I'll get a paper route!" "we can have a bake sale !" "Grandma will help!" "I will, too," said Hilde, " me, too," piped in Grand Dad Jim. "We'll give you our allowence EVERY WEEK!" "We can rake leaves in the fall!" "shovel snow in the winter!" "we can...." "Now, now girls. It wasn't all your fault. You shouldn't have tried to do the milk by yourselves, but I knew you were coming this morning. I could have left you a note. I SHOULD have been back on time. We would have been, too, but they were JUST taking cinnamon rolls out of the oven at the coffee shop. We smelled them all the way from the hardware." "I think they must have a fan that blows that smell all over town," added Hilde. "We were just going to run in and out, but we ran into Jess, you know how she goes on and on, and then Peter had to talk to Fred about some new tractor gizmo, you know how it goes in town on Saturday morning! EVERYONE in there and wants to talk, talk, talk. We should have realized...." "So we were late getting home. I should have been here by the time you came. I KNOW when you come! It's not your fault. It just happened." By this time Ruffles and the cats had finished up their feast. Ruffles lay down by Grand Dad Jim's chair, Mama cat returned to her kittens on the porch, the farm cats to the barn where they found cozy straw to curl up in. "I sure could use some help cleaning up this mess!" Friend Farmer finally said.
While Mary got out the hose, and Emily found the broom, Grand Dad Jim talked to Ruffles, and Friend Farmer spoke quietly to Hilde. Mary and Emily carried the table by the tank out into the sun and spread the wet cow books on it to dry. The scooped the part of the dog food that didn't get wet into a big metal trash can, and the part that was ruined into a trash bag. They spread their wet jackets on the grass, took off their soggy shoes and socks and laid them in the sun, too. Then they got to work in the milk house. They took turns with the hose and the broom, spraying and scrubbing every thing they saw, including each other. By the time Hilde came out with a pitcher of raspberry ice tea and cinnamon toast for everyone, Emily and Mary were thoroughtly and truely soaked. But they were laughing again, and proud to show Hilde, Friend Farmer, and Grand Dad Jim the sparkling clean milk house. "We even washed the yellow door!" Emily said. "Hasn't looked this good in some time, " said Friend Farmer, "nice job, girls."
As they all enjoyed their morning snack by the stone wall, Firend Farmer said, "I should have replaced the extra screw the minute I used it on the tractor. Then I could have replaced the old one in the faucet THE MINUTE I noticed it was loose. It was just irresponsible to let that go." "I think we need a big chalk board, " said Grand Dad Jim. It could help us keep track of things. You could keep a list of who the girls deliver to, and their phone numbers. You could keep track of which cows need medicine, or are about to calf." "And when we need supplies - like screws!" added Friend Farmer. "That's a GREAT idea!" chimed in Hilde. "There could be a corner just for notes. Like, when you're out in the field and I want you to know that dinner will be late, or early, or well, whatever." "And you could leave notes for us!" "It's DONE!" said Friend Farmer, smiling. "I'll run back to town this afternoon and pick one up." "No need," said Grand Dad Jim, "I've got one from when they took the old school house down. Kept it all these years for no reason at all." "I guess there is a reason, afterall," said Emily with her mouth half full of toast. "Maybe," said Hilde, "there's always a reason for things and most of the time we just don't see it."
On their way home Mary and Emily stopped at each house that had been expecting fresh milk to explain why there was no milk today. On this Saturday, there were no blueberry muffins, or fresh squeezed ornage juice, or pancakes. It was, afterall, almost afternoon!
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