myself would
have gone without a morsel, rather than you should lack a better supper.
But I took the most part of to-day's milk to make cheese; and our last
loaf is already half eaten. Ah me! I never feel the sorrow of being poor,
save when a poor traveler knocks at our door."

"All will be very well; do not trouble yourself, my good dame," replied
the elder stranger kindly. "An honest, hearty welcome to a guest works
miracles with the fare, and is capable of turning the coarsest food to
nectar and ambrosia."

"A welcome you shall have," cried Baucis, "and likewise a little honey
that we happen to have left, and a bunch of purple grapes besides."

"Why, Mother Baucis, it is a feast!" exclaimed Quicksilver, laughing; "an
absolute feast! and you shall see how bravely I will play my part at it! I
think I never felt hungrier in my life."

"Mercy on us!" whispered Baucis to her husband. "If the young man has such
a terrible appetite, I am afraid there will not be half enough supper!"

[Illustration: "I AM AFRAID THERE WILL NOT BE HALF ENOUGH SUPPER"]

They all went into the cottage.

And now, my little auditors, shall I tell you something that will make you
open your eyes very wide? It is really one of the oddest circumstances in
the whole story. Quicksilver's staff, you recollect, had set itself up
against the wall of the cottage. Well, when its master entered the door,
leaving this wonderful staff behind, what should it do but immediately
spread its little wings, and go hopping and fluttering up the doorsteps!
Tap, tap, went the staff, on the kitchen floor; nor did it rest until it
had stood itself on end, with the greatest gravity and decorum, beside
Quicksilver's chair. Old Philemon, however, as well as his wife, was so
taken up in attending to their guests that no notice was given to what the
staff had been about.

As Baucis had said, there was but a scanty supper for two hungry
travelers. In the middle of the table was the remnant of a brown loaf,
with a piece of cheese on one side of it, and a dish of honeycomb on the
other. There was a pretty good bunch of grapes for each of the guests. A
moderately sized earthen pitcher, nearly full of milk, stood at a corner
of the board; and when Baucis had filled two bowls, and set them before
the strangers, only a little milk remained in the bottom of the pitcher.
Alas! it is a very sad business, when a bountiful heart finds itself
pinched and squeezed among narrow circ