THE MAID AND HER MILK PAIL.
One day, as a young maid went down the road with her pail of milk on her head, she was heard to say, “This pail of milk will fetch me so much, which sum I will lay out in eggs; these eggs will bring a score of chicks, and they will be fit to sell just at the time when fowls bear a good price; so that on May day I shall have a new gown. Let me see,—yes, green will suit me best, and green it shall be. In this dress I will go to the fair, and all who are there will pay their court to me; but with a proud look I shall turn from them.”
Wrapt in this dream of joy, she gave a toss of the head to suit the words, when down came the pail of milk, and with it the eggs, the chicks, the green gown, and all the bright thoughts of what she would do at the fair.
Count not your chicks till they are out of the shell. Each “may be” hath a “may not be.”