Jasper concluded they would explore the two rooms, as everybody seemed
to be expected to do, after the main object of the visit was
accomplished and the dairy inspected.

"Dear me, do they have to take their shoes off before they go in the
house?" cried Polly.

"I suppose so," said Jasper. "Well, it isn't much trouble to get out of
those sabots, that's one comfort for them."

"Dear me," Mrs. Fisher was saying, "if they haven't a carpet on the
floor for the cows to walk on!" And there, surely, were strips of
carpeting all down the walks between the rows of stalls, and something
that looked like braided hemp in the bottom of the stalls themselves.
And everything was tiled where it could be, with little tiles, and all
these and every bit of the woodwork itself shone beautifully--it was so
clean and polished.

Mrs. Fisher's black eyes shone, too. "It's beautiful," she said to her
husband, "to see everything so clean for once in the world."

"What are those hooks for?" asked Jasper of the stolid Dutchman, who
showed them about, and who spoke English fairly well.

"We hook the cows' tails up so they won't shake any dirt on their
sides," said the Dutchman.

"O dear me!" exclaimed Polly Pepper, and everybody laughed--but she
didn't.