And I wish, for all our sakes, that we had the pitcher
here now!
After the story.
“How much did the pitcher hold?” asked
Sweet Fern.
“It did not hold quite a quart,” answered
the student; “but you might keep pouring milk
out of it, till you should fill a hogshead, if you
pleased. The truth is, it would run on forever,
and not be dry even at midsummer,—which
is more than can be said of yonder rill, that goes
babbling down the hillside.”
“And what has become of the pitcher now?”
inquired the little boy.
“It was broken, I am sorry to say, about twenty-five
thousand years ago,” replied Cousin Eustace.
“The people mended it as well as they could;
but, though it would hold milk pretty well, it was
never afterwards known to fill itself of its own accord.
So, you see, it was no better than any other cracked
earthen pitcher.”
“What a pity!” cried all the children
at once.
The respectable dog Ben had accompanied the party,
as did likewise a half-grown Newfoundland puppy, who
went by the name of Bruin, because he was just as
black as a bear. Ben, being elderly, and of very
circumspect habits, was respectfully requested, by
Cousin Eustace, to stay behind with the four little
children, in order to keep them out of mischief.
As for black Bruin, who was himself nothing but a
child, the student thought it best to take him along,
lest, in his rude play with the other children, he
should trip them up, and send them rolling and tumbling
down the bill. Advising Cowslip, Sweet Fern,
Dandelion, and Squashblossom to sit pretty still,
in the spot where he left them, the student, with
Primrose and the elder children, began to ascend, and
were soon out of sight among the trees.
*** End of the project gutenberg
EBOOK, miraculous pitcher *** By Nathaniel
Hawthorne
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