Patty the Milkmaid was going to market carrying her
milk in a Pail on her head. As she went along she began
calculating what she would do with the money she would
get for the milk. ‘I’ll buy some fowls from Farmer Brown,’
said she, ‘and they will lay eggs each morning, which I
will sell to the parson’s wife. With the money that I get
from the sale of these eggs I’ll buy myself a new dimity
frock and a chip hat; and when I go to market, won’t all
the young men come up and speak to me! Polly Shaw will
be that jealous; but I don’t care. I shall just look at her and
toss my head like this. As she spoke she tossed her head
back, the Pail fell off it, and all the milk was spilt. So she
had to go home and tell her mother what had occurred.
‘Ah, my child,’ said the mother,
Moral Lesson: ‘Do not count your chickens before they are hatched.’
―
Aesop
