In Chapter XVI Tess travels in the month of May from her home of
Marlott to Egdon to start her new life as a milkmaid. In Chapter
XVII I learn way more about milking cows then I ever needed to
know, which isn’t really all that much. As for Tess, she meets
Dairyman Dick (AKA Mister Richard Crick), the owner of the farm.
She quickly gets to work milking cows, no rest for the weary
here! We learn that Richard Crick is religious and he does milk
some of the more difficult cows himself. He does seem to be a
bit reticent at first since Tess obviously hasn’t spent much
time outside, but she wins him over. She quickly settles in and
is already feeling comfortable in this new life. There are
nearly 100 men and woman on the farm milking cows. When the cows
seem to be withholding their milk they will sing, which starts a
conversation about who enjoys singing more. Bulls or cows? This
naturally gets one of the men to tell a story about a man who
was chased by a bull and only got away by singing to the bull.
Of course one