THE MIRACULOUS PITCHER. 169

hopping and fluttering up the doorsteps! Tap, tap,
went the staff, on the kitchen floor; nor did it rest until
it had stood itself on end, with the greatest gravity and
decorum, beside Quicksilver’s chair. Old Philemon,
however, as well as his wife, was so taken up in attend-
ing to their guests, that no notice was given to what the
staff had been about.

As Baucis had said, there was but a scanty supper for
two hungry travellers. In the middle of the table was the
remnant of a brown loaf, with a piece of cheese on one
side of it, and a dish of honeycomb on the other. There
was a pretty good bunch of grapes for each of the guests.
A moderately sized earthen pitcher, nearly full of milk,
stood at a corner of the board; and when Baucis had
filled two bowls, and set them before the strangers, only
a little milk remained in the bottom of the pitcher.
Alas! it is a very sad business, when a bountiful heart,
finds itself pinched and squeezed among narrow circum-
stances. Poor Baucis kept wishing that she might starve
for a week to come, if it were possible, by so doing, to
provide these hungry folks a more plentiful supper.

And, since the supper was so exceedingly small, she
could not help wishing that their appetites had not been
quite so large. Why, at their very first sitting down,
the travellers both drank off all the milk in their two
bowls, at a draught.

“A little more milk, kind Mother Baucis, if you
please,” said Quicksilver. . “The day has been hot, and
I am very much athirst.”

‘““Now, my dear people,” answered Baucis, in great

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