But for the coming of the new baby, he would probably have gone back
to the pigs. And he preferred babies. A baby demands attention as
well as a herd of pigs, but you can get it home. It does not run
off in twenty-eight different directions, just when you think you
have safely turned the corner into the village.

Master Salter's swine suffered neglect at the hands of several
successors to the office Abel had held, and Master Salter--whilst
alluding to these in indignant terms as "young varments," "gallus-
birds," and so forth--was pleased to express his regret that the
gentle and trustworthy Abel had given up pig-minding for nursing.

The pigs' loss was the baby's gain. No tenderer or more careful
nurse could the little Jan have had. And he throve apace.

The windmiller took more notice of him than he had been wont to do
of his own children in their babyhood. He had never been a playful
or indulgent father, but he now watched with considerable interest
the child who, all unconsciously, was bringing in so much "grist to
the mill."

When the weather was not fine enough for them to be out of doors,
Abel would play with his charge in the round-house, and the
windmiller never drove him out of the mill, as at one time he would
have done. Now and then, too, he would pat the little Jan's head,
and bestow a word of praise on his careful guardian.

It may be well, by-the-by, to explain what a round-house is. Some
of the brick or tower mills widen gradually and evenly to the base.
Others widen abruptly at the lowest story, which stands out all