Man of the Family Read Online Free PDF Page B

milk her into a ten-pound lard pail and keep pouring it over into the big bucket.
    Mother let Grace and me sit up that evening after the other youngsters had gone to bed. For a while I thought I was going to be able to talk her out of my having to go to school any more, but I didn’t. First we talked about the cow. With her giving as much milk as she did, we couldn’t use it all, and Mother wanted to be sure we got the most we could for what we didn’t need ourselves.
    Grace was quick as a flash with figures, so Mother sent her for a pad and pencil. When Grace came back, Mother said, “Now, let me see. . . . Let’s say our cow gives an even twelve quarts of milk at a milking. . . . That’s twenty-four quarts in a day, isn’t it? We’ll need about four quarts a day for you children. Then—Injun pudding takes a lot of milk—let’s say Ralph is able to sell . . . How many quarts of Injun pudding did you get orders for today?”
    I said, “Only four.”
    Mother turned to Grace, “You see, what we have to figure out is whether we’d get more for our extra milk as just plain milk or as butter, but first we’ve got to see how much extra milk we’ll have.”
    It seemed to me as though Mother was going at it just the right way, but Grace kept opening her mouth as if she wanted to say something. Mother noticed it too, and asked, “What is it, dear?”
    â€œWell,” Grace said, “if we just want to know which will bring in the most money, we don’t need to know how much we’ll have to sell.”
    Mother pinched her lip a minute and said, “Well, I can’t see why not. How will we know how much money we’ll get if we don’t know how much we’ll have to sell?”
    â€œBut we’re not trying to find out how much we’ll get, are we? We’re trying to find out which way we’ll get the most.”
    â€œNo . . . are we? . . . Why yes, I guess we are,” Mother said.
    â€œThen all we need to know,” Grace said, “is how much milk it takes to make a pound of butter, and how much a pound we can get for butter. We know that we pay Mrs. Lenheart a dollar for every twenty-four quarts of milk we get from her, and we should get more for rich Jersey milk. I think we ought to get five cents a quart. How many quarts of milk does it take to make a pound of butter?”
    Mother pinched her upper lip again, and said, “Now let me think some about how I made butter on the ranch. When both cows were fresh I used to have four good pans at a rising. That would be eight pans a day. Then, I used to churn once a week and would have about twenty-five pounds of butter. Now let’s see, where does that leave us?”
    Grace hadn’t put down any figures at all, but she answered right back, “That’s twenty-five pounds out of fifty-six pans, so it’s two and a quarter pans to a pound. With Jersey milk we could figure it two pans. How many quarts in a pan?”
    â€œNow, let me think,” Mother said. “Those were six-quart pans we had on the ranch, but I didn’t fill them brim full. Oh, about five quarts, I’d think.”
    â€œThen it would take ten quarts of Duckleg’s milk to make a pound of butter. How much a pound do you think we could sell it for?”
    Mother knew that right offhand. “Twenty cents,” she said. “My, my! Why that way we’d only get two cents a quart for our milk, and think of all the work we’d have. Ralph, I think I’ll have to let you stay out of school tomorrow and see if you can’t drum us up some milk customers. You could tell them we’d deliver it right to their doors and they wouldn’t have to come after it. Gracie, will you put the teakettle on so we can sterilize a couple of fruit jars. I want to set some samples so he will be able to show the ladies what a deep