"
"I would come and work like a good one at my Lady's hay and harvest,"
said Stead, "and I shall get stronger and bigger every year."
"But the beast," said the steward, "my Lady's interests must come
first, you see."
"O don't let him take Croppie," cried Patience. "O sir, not the
cows, or baby will die, and we can't make the butter."
"You see, Master Brown," explained Blane, "it is butter as is their
chief stand-by. Poor Dame Kenton, as was took last spring, was the
best dairywoman in the parish, and this little maid takes after her.
Their kine are their main prop, but there's the mare, there's not
much good that she can do them."
"Let us look!" said the steward. "A sorry jade enow! But I don't
know but she will serve our turn better than the cow. There was a
requisition, as they have the impudence to call it, from the
Parliament lot that took off all our horses, except old grey Dobbin
and the colt, and this beast may come in handy to draw the wood. So
I'll take her, and you may think yourself well off, and thank my Lady
I'm so easy with you.
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