You’d Never Guess What This Is Just by Looking at It
There I was, wandering the thrift store, fully intending to avoid buying anything. And then there it lay—a milking stool with handle. Worn wood, scuffed legs, and that curious little peg sticking out the side. One leg had the same sort of carved rings I remembered from the old porch columns. The handle, I noticed, had a hole in it. It was probably used for hanging on a barn wall or hooking on a belt loop.
The milking stool is a short three-legged wooden seat for the use of none but Bessie and her associates while they are undergoing the milking process. The handle is for carrying from cow to cow. The hole in the handle is not for ornament, but has utility also. You can hang it up, hook it, or put a rope through the hole.
The three legs? It isn’t merely “barny-garny.” The three legs stand firmly on the uneven floor of a barn, but since she has four legs (generally speaking) she wobbles. And when you are milking a cow, to say nothing of other five-legged animals, wobbling is bad form.