37. Ah alright Scottie said

- "Ah! alright!" Scottie said and, leaving the Japanese to their quaint ways, connected with the idea of making a cake.

She walked to the kitchen corner and pulled out of her pigeon hole a small book which was regarded as the bible for cooking matters. After fingering a number of pages she made up her mind to make scones. She had never succeeded in making scones in Scotland, she was saying, but in Kerikeri it had become her great specialty. Shiho's specialty was to make tiny cakes that she loved to pass all around afterwards.

Elle said she was going to make a carrot cake that could be brought to Kenji the next day. The recipe was on page 39 of the cook book according to Edmonds.

All swore by the 'Edmonds Cookery Book'. The success story of this family in New Zealand was not ordinary. It marked out a whole century of lady pioneers who were making their bread in places and at a time when it was hard to find good flour and above all yeast that would be... 'sure to rise'. The Edmonds family in Christchurch had launched into the making of reliable yeasts and into publishing a family cookery book that was still all the rage. All the dishes in that book were interesting to make and pleasant to eat.

"Pity we eat so fast in this country and with so little art", Elle thought.

On Sundays she had found some tutoring for extra money. A lady living in a large house in the midst of green pastures and fields of daffodils was learning French. For an hour's teaching she often spent the whole afternoon there chatting and sipping tea.

This Sunday she had cancelled the lesson. Shiho, Saa, Maa, Hiro and Scottie, all boarded valiant Olympic for a visit to the dairy.

The old car that was leaking when it rained, dragged its load on the main road at first and then along a few kilometers of dirt road. The exhaust pipe hit the ground at the slightest bump and the shock absorbers threatened to give up the ghost.

It was parked along a ditch, not far from a cemented paddock where numerous Dutch dairy cows stood waiting. They were all pregnant. One of them was about to drop its calf.

The cow was standing in the midst of others pushing and mooing. The two front legs of the calf appeared under the cow's tail. Slowly it came out and just fell on the gooey cement floor. The cow turned around, smelt it and licked it vaguely. Then it walked off further mingling with the others. The calf was desperately trying to stand up. Other cows around tried to help with their muzzle but the gooey cement was no favorable terrain for the exercise. Pretty soon the figure of a manly woman appeared.

- "Bab!" they all said.