The Milkmaid and Her Pail
- 2 minute read
- Ages 5-9
- Aesop's Fables
A milkmaid named Patty had finished the morning milking, and she set off along the road to market with the full pail balanced carefully on her head.
It was a fine morning. The road was long. And as she walked, she began to think about the money.
The plan
The milk in this pail, she thought, will fetch a good price.
And with that money I will buy eggs. Say three hundred of them. Not all will hatch, but even if only half do, that is a hundred and fifty chickens.
Chickens will be ready by the time the prices are highest, just before Christmas, when everyone wants them and will pay well.
And with the money from the chickens, she thought, I shall buy a new gown. A green one, I think. Green suits me.
And I shall wear it to the fair.
The fair
She could see it now, quite clearly.
She would walk into the fair in the green gown, and every young man there would come over and want to talk to her and ask her to dance.
And she would let them come. All of them. And then she would look at each one in turn, and toss her head, and say no.
Just like this.
And she tossed her head.
The pail came off, and hit the road, and the milk went out across the stones and into the dust and down between them, all of it, every drop.
Patty stood in the road and looked at it.
Then she picked up the empty pail and walked home to tell her mother that there would be no eggs, and no chickens, and no green gown, and no fair.
Moral of the story
Do not count on what you have not got yet. Plans built on things that have not happened can be knocked over by a single careless movement.
Questions and answers
- What was the milkmaid carrying to market?
She was carrying a full pail of milk balanced on her head.
- What did she plan to buy with the money from the milk?
She planned to buy three hundred eggs, raise the chickens that hatched, sell them at Christmas and buy a new green gown.
- Why did she want the green gown?
She wanted to wear it to the fair, where she imagined all the young men would want to dance with her.
- What made her spill the milk?
She imagined tossing her head to refuse the young men, and actually tossed her head, which knocked the pail off.
- What is the lesson of her mistake?
She lost the one real thing she had, the milk, because she was living inside a plan built on things she had not yet earned.
Word meanings
- milkmaid
- A woman or girl whose job is milking cows.
- pail
- A bucket, usually for carrying milk or water.
- hatch
- When a baby bird breaks out of its egg.
- gown
- A long dress worn on special occasions.
Questions about The Milkmaid and Her Pail
What is the moral of The Milkmaid and Her Pail?
The moral is 'do not count your chickens before they hatch'. Making plans that depend on things you have not got yet can cost you what you already have.
Where does the phrase 'don't count your chickens before they hatch' come from?
It comes from this fable, where the milkmaid counts chickens that have not even been bought as eggs yet.
Is it wrong to make plans?
No. The fable is not against planning. It is against becoming so absorbed in the imagined result that you stop paying attention to what you are actually doing.
What is the milkmaid's name?
In most English versions she is called Patty, though the original fable does not give her a name.