Or maybe I'll bury it at the garden foot and just keep a bit in the old china teapot on the chimney-piece. 'So much the better! The neighbours will not see what I'm bringing home, and I shall have all the night to myself, and be able to think what I'll do! Mayhap I'll buy a grand house and just sit by the fire with a cup o' tea and do no work at all like a queen. 'It will soon be dark,' she said to herself as she trotted along. It was too heavy for her to carry, and she could see no better way than to tie the end of her shawl to it and drag it behind her like a go-cart. I feel awful rich!'Īfter she had said this many times, she began to wonder how she was to get her treasure home. Well, at first she simply stood stock-still, wondering if she was standing on her head or her heels. Here's luck!'Īnd so it was, brimful of great gold coins. But it would do fine to put a flower in for my window so I'll just take it home with me.'Īnd with that she lifted the lid and looked inside. 'Maybe there is a hole in it,' she went on, 'and that's why it has been cast away. 'Goodness me!' she cried, 'that would be just the very thing for me if I only had something to put in it! But I haven't! Now who could have left it in the ditch?'Īnd she looked about her expecting the owner would not be far off but she could see nobody. Now one summer evening, as she was trotting, full of smiles as ever, along the high road to her hovel, what should she see but a big black pot lying in the ditch!

So she made shift to get on, and always looked as spry and cheery as if she had not a want in the world.

She lived in a little bit of a cottage and earned a scant living by running errands for her neighbours, getting a bite here, a sup there, as reward for her services. There was once a woman who was very, very cheerful, though she had little to make her so for she was old, and poor, and lonely.

1 the bogey beast by flora annie steel