et before
her guests.

"Had we known you were coming," said she, "my good man and myself
would have gone without a morsel, rather than you should lack a better
supper. But I took the most part of to-day's milk to make cheese; and
our last loaf is already half eaten. Ah me! I never feel the sorrow of
being poor, save when a poor traveler knocks at our door."

"All will be very well; do not trouble yourself, my good dame,"
replied the elder stranger, kindly. "An honest, hearty welcome to a
guest works miracles with the fare, and is capable of turning the
coarsest food to nectar and ambrosia."

"A welcome you shall have," cried Baucis, "and likewise a little honey
that we happen to have left, and a bunch of purple grapes besides."

"Why, Mother Baucis, it is a feast!" exclaimed Quicksilver, laughing,
"an absolute feast! and you shall see how bravely I will play my part
at it! I think I never felt hungrier in my life."

"Mercy on us!" whispered Baucis to her husband. "If the young man has
such a terrible appetite, I am afraid there will not be half enough
supper!"

They all went into the cottage.

And now, my little auditors, shall I tell you something that will make
you open your eyes very wide? It is really one of the oddest
circumstances in the whole story. Quicksilver's staff, you recollect,
had set itself up against the wall of the cottage. Well; when its
master entered the door, leaving this wonderful staff behind, what
should it do but immediately spread its little wings, and go hopping
and fluttering up the door-steps! 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 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
travelers. 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 squeeze