as his wife, was so taken up in attending 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 circumstances. 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 confusion, "I am so
sorry and ashamed! But the truth is, there is hardly a drop more milk in
the pitcher. O husband! husband! why didn't we go without our supper?"

"Why, it appears to me," cried Quicksilver, starting up from the table
and taking the pitcher by the handle, "it really appears to me that
matters are not quite so bad as you represent them. Here is certainly
more milk in the pitcher."

So saying, and to the vast astonishment of Baucis, he proceeded to fill,
not only his own bowl, but his companion's likewise, from the pitcher,
that was supposed to be almost empty. The good woman could scarcely
believe her eyes. She had certainly poured out nearly all the milk, and
had peeped in afterward, and seen the bottom of the pitcher, as she set
it down upon the table.

"But I am old," thought Baucis to herself, "and apt to be forgetful I
suppose I must have made a mistake. At all events, the pitcher cannot
help being empty now, after filling the bowls twice over."

"What excellent milk!" observed Quicksilver, after quaffing the contents
of the second bowl, "Excuse me, my kind hostess, but I must really ask
you for a litt