A Cow Working a Pump　会用水泵的母牛

My informant writes me as follows:“We have a wonderful cow here—about ten years old,and very clever at opening gates and breaking fences.There is a pump about three feet high in the center of the field,near my house,over a trough,which is,or ought to be,filled daily.It was on a hot day,when my man had omitted to pump the trough full,that the cow was first observed to help herself:the way in which she managed to pump was by pushing the handle up with her head and then forcing it down with her horns.Very little elevation of the handle is required to get water,and she would work it for five minutes together,and sometimes drank from the spout,and sometimes from the trough.”

有人给我写信爆料：“我们这里有一头了不起的母牛——大约十岁，很聪明，会开门，还会破篱而入。我家附近的那块田中央，有一个差不多三英尺高的水泵（3英尺=91.44厘米），泵下面是一个水槽，每天都得给这个水槽加满水。有一天，天很热，我雇的人忘了给水槽加水了，于是，这个母牛竟然自力更生，自己用水泵打起了水。这可是破天荒第一次。她汲水的方法如下：先用头把水泵的摇把顶上去，然后再用犄角把它压下来。那个摇把只要往上抬一点点，就能把水打上来，她前后只要花五分钟时间。有时候她抬头去喝泵口的水，有时候又低头去喝水槽里的水。”