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216 THROUGH NORWAY WITII A KNAPSACK.
six or eight cows. She took a little hag of salt from
the hut, and, before she had fairly cleared the threshold,
ay as the axis of a pyramid of goats, who were crowding
round her and leaping over each other’s backs, for the
privilege of licking her hand after each dip into the
salt-bag. She repelled the goats as energetically as
she-had repelled the men, but more mercifully; for she
thrust the ends of her fingers into the mouth of each
before giving it the buffet of dismissal. The tact she
displayed in preventing any of the obtrusive animals
from obtaining more than one lick of salt, was
remarkable; a second application was met by a grasp of the
horns, and a thrust that drove the upreared aspirant
staggering backwards a yard or two: she must have
distinctly known the features of each individual goat
to pick them out so certainly. The cows were next
treated in like manner, then seized by the horns and
ears, as the goats were seized before, and each one
dragged to its proper stall in an adjoining building, not
distinguishable exteriorly from that designed for the
bipeds.
This milking was a work of some time, for the brave
damsel was quite unaided in this scuffle with her flock,
and in all the subsequent operations of milking and
cheese-making. She was queen and mistress of her
own domain and family, and her efforts seemed pretty
equally divided between the cares of internal
administration and the repelling of the external male invaders;
whose gallantry seemed entirely confined to teasing her,
and led to no suggestion of aid in her really arduous
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