Fresh Milk

Once upon a time there were two little girls and their names were Mary and Emily. Mary and Emily lived with their Mama and Daddy in a small, friendly village. To the north of the village were the mountains, where their friend Betsey Bear lived. To the south of the village was the forest. They liked to take picnics there. To the east was the city, so busy and full of noise and lights! And to the west was the prairie with it's wind and sun and sweeping grasses.

Mary and Emily's Mama and Daddy had a friend whose name was Fred. He was a farmer, and when Mary and Emily were very little girls, they called him Friend Farmer. They still call him that! Only, once in a while, they call him Friend Fred, or, Farmer Fred. ONCE they tried Friend Farmer Fred, but that took too long. Well, Friend Farmer had lots of cows. I mean LOTS of cows! Maybe 75 or 100. He milked the cows with a big machine, not with his hands like Grandma did in the old days. That would take all day! He lined up 12 cows, each in a little stall, each with a rack of cow food. Then he attatched the machine to their teats and truned it on. Voila ! Milk! Then those 12 cows went back out to the pasture and the next 12 took their turn in the stalls. It went on like that till all of the cows were milked. He did this twice a day, morning and evening. Now you can imagine that this made a big, big, BIG amount of milk! The milk was kept in a big, big BIG tank, about as big as your Grandma's swimming pool, only taller. Many of Mary and Emily's neighbors liked fresh farm milk, instead of store milk. So Mary and Emily had a special Saturday job. They would get up early Saturday morning and line their bike baskets with plastic bags, the kind you get at the grocery store when you forget to take your own cloth ones. They put on old shoes, special for going to the farm, zipped their jackets, found their bike helmets, and were off to Friend Farmer's farm. Beside the big red barn was a room that had almost nothing in it but the giant humongous, google-plex tank of milk. This room had a door painted bright shinny yellow. It always made Mary think of sunshine. It made Emily think of butter! While Friend Farmer filled bottles and jars with milk from the tank, Friend Farmer's wife filled the bike baskets with ice, to keep the milk cold while being delivered. Mary and Emily helped them both and soon were on their way with about 4 bottles of milk in each basket. They delivered the milk right into the kitchens of all of the neighboars who loved that fresh milk. Sometimes, in one of those cheerful kitchens they would get a warm blueberry mufin, or a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. Once, pancakes ! It was a great job!

On this particular Saturday, Mary and Emily got up bright and early, lined their bike baskets with plastic bags, and rode off to Friend Farmer's big red barn, just like always. But when they got there, no one was there. Not Friend Farmer, and not Friend Farner's wife, who, by the way, was named Hilda. The cows had all been milked, Mary and Emily could see that they were already out in the back pasture, but there was no one anywhere about. What should they do? They knew that the families were expecting their milk for breakfast, but, what should they DO? They decided to wait. They climbed a few trees, ate an apple or two from one, walked along the stone wall as far as the woods, and played ball for awhile with Ruffles, the farm sheep dog. But time was passing ! And Mary and Emily knew the families were waiting, maybe even watching out their windows, looking for them.

Mary and Emily KNEW how to get the milk out of the tank. They had helped Friend Farmer do it many, many times. They knew how to wipe off the rim of each bottle with a clean rag from that drawer, right over there. They knew how to hold the bottle, just so, RIGHTunder the faucet so you don't lose a single DROP of milk. They knew how to turn the faucet handle slowly, so no milk would splash, and how to turn it off just BEFORE the bottle was all the way full, not spilling the teeniest drip. That fresh milk was PRECIOUS! Mary and Emily looked at each other. They looked at the tank. They looked at the clean, empty bottles, lined up on the shelf. Together they walked to the drawer of clean rags. CAREFULLY they lifed each bottle down and wiped the rim. CAREFULLY they carried the bottles to the table beside the tank, just like Friend Farmer did. CAREFULLY the put the first bottle under the faucet, just SO, and CAREFULLY they turned the faucet handle.