The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-08-21
BESSIE THE MILK-MAID.

| DESSlEr HE I1lLh-WAlD.
A little girl in the milk business?
Who ever heard of such a thing! Yet
such a business is being carried on sue
cessfully out of school hours by a
bright little girl in New Jersey, aged
a. And it all began so unexpectedly
and in the smallest possible way-like
many another successful venture.
1t happened two summers ago that
Bessie's small baby sister fell i'll and
there was much agitation in the family
circle when the doctor attributed it to
the cow whose milk the baby had been
drinking. When Bessie heard her
mother giving instructions to one of
their men to scour the country and
purchase a cow at any price, she an
nounced that she was going with him to
pick out a COW good enough for baby"
The mother kindly refrained from sug-
! costing that the child's opinion might
not be worth anything and started her
off on her quest.
Whether it was the grooms good
/ Judgment or Bessie's intuition, the
/ family has not yet decided at all
events a splendid Holstein was discov-
cred in the neighborhood, but alas the
farmer refused to part with her. though
he was easily persuaded to sell the
milk if they cared to send after it.
[ Then it was. that Bessie came forward
and astonished the farmer by telling
him she should come for it herself. She
I looked like such a bonnie little lady
/ sitting so straight on her pony that he
never thought of opposing her-neither
I did the groom, who was used to her in
dependent ways. So he made an ar
rangement with the farmer which was
( to be permanent if the milk proved sat
7 isfactory and Bessie bore home in tri-
I umph to her mother a small pailful of
milk.
! The milk did prove satisfactory and
| for month or more an energetic little
maiden mounted her pony and galloped
| down the country road at o'clock in
J the morning. But she did not gallop
home again-no indeed A pailful of
milk must be carried with circumspec-
ition. The pony never quite understood
/ why his little mistress held him in
check when the air was so sweet and
fresh, and his feet just tingled to fly
over the ground again. And this was
not all, for Bessie had learned to milk
J She thought it the most fascinating oc-
cupation she had ever experienced and
a pretty picture it was in the farmyard
to see her firmly planted on her stool.
filing the shining pail with foaming
milk. the farmer standing by and some
! times lending a hand, the COW aud the
pony exchanging glances as much as to
say: What a dear. clever little thing
she is. to be sure" But Bessie was
not thinking of the picture she made
it was her father who thought of it
when he rode over with her one morn
ing.
Her mother called the cow "Bessie's
own" and that put an idea into the
ehild's head. So when her father re-
turned from the city one day Bessie
81 III, 70 h 60. he
very own, and then take milk from her
so that she might earn some money.
She did not need money in the least, of
course, for her father more than sup
piled her wants. but her evident desire
to try her small hand at business in
tereSted her father who liked to see
his children show originality. Accord
ingly he talked the matter over with
her quite seriously, as if she were a
grown woman instead of a sturdy lit
tie maiden not reaching much above his
elbow. 1t being one of his theories that
good business principles could not too
early be implanted in the minds of
boys and girls, this wise father did not
give COW to Bessie, but lent her the
money to buy one, agreeing to take
milk from her at the market price.
And that was how Bessie began. She
actually persuaded the farmer to sell
her the Holstein to which she had be-
come greatly attached, and in six
months she had paid for the COW and
bought another She got the neighbors
to take milk from her, and so rapidly
has her business and her stock in
creased that now. at the end of two
years, she owns ten COWS and four of
the prettiast little calves ever seen.
Her sister aged 10. has been taken
into the businessmen into partnership;
Bessie is not quite prepared for that
yet but she pays her a salary and gives
good wages to the man who takes care
of the stock And her browning
achievement. up to date, is the barn
she has built on a pasture her father
gave her It is not all paid for yet, but
it will be in another six months.
Though now a proud little property
owner she is still the same little milk
maid for she and her sister assist
with the milking every morning.
All this has in no wise been allowed
to interfere with her school work-a
judicious father and mother have
guided her with firm hands-and it is
noticed that Bessie takes infinitely
more pains over her writing lessons
and arithmetic than of yore. Indeed,
her father thinks her very keen at
bookkeeping, into the mysteries of
which he is initiating her, and laugh
ingly says she will soon have no fur
Their use Tor MIN, Tor ne now lets ner 90
a good bit of 1t herself. This keeping
accounts is no small feature of her
business: already she has learned to
make out monthly bills. which are
viewed with admiration by those of her
customers who recognize her childish
sprawling hand.
She's up with the larks and to bed
with the chickens, is Bessie, the milk
MAZDA sturdy, rollicking, practical
child And when 81 school they ask
her for maxim, she says unhesitat-
ingly:
'.Early to bed and early to rise
Makes a girl healthy, wealthy and
WISE
FRANCES WESTON rARRTITH-