“Early on a white January morning, Samuel’s mother said, ‘I do wish we had a brown-eyed cow to give us milk for the baby.’”

     So Papa sets out to get Mama a cow, and Samuel goes with him. “‘Keep up,’ said Samuel’s father. He looked up at the gray clouds. ‘It’s a long road on a short day.’” Papa takes his best Barlow knife with him, but he doesn’t explain to Samuel how he plans to get a cow. He shows him. 

     At the first farm they come to, Papa trades his knife to Mr. Snow for two tin lanterns. It’s a good trade for the knife, but as Samuel plays with Mr. Snow’s dog, he wishes, “just a little bit, it wasn’t a brown-eyed cow his mother was wanting.”