He caught it, too, just as it ran out of doors, and gave it such a kick
that piggy died on the spot. Then all at once he remembered he had the
tap in his hand; but when he got down to the cellar, every drop of ale
had run out of the cask.
Then he went into the dairy and found enough cream left to fill the
churn again, and so he began to churn, for butter they must have at
dinner. When he had churned a bit, he remembered that their milking cow
was still shut up in its stall, and had not had a mouthful to eat or a
drop to drink all the morning, though the sun was high. Then he thought
it was too far to take her down to the meadow, so he'd just get her up
on the house top, for the house, you must know, was thatched with sods,
and a fine crop of grass was growing there. Now their house lay close up
against a steep rock, and he thought if he laid a plank across to the
roof at the back, he'd easily get the cow up.
But still he could not leave the churn, for there was their little babe
crawling about the floor, and, "If I leave it," he thought, "the child
is sure to upset it."
So he took the churn on his back and went out with it. Then he thought
he'd better water the cow before he turned her out on the thatch, and he
took up a bucket to draw water out of the well. But, as he stooped down
at the brink of the well, all the cream ran out of the churn over his
shoulders, about his neck, and down into the well.
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