pitcher, wishing
for the food he was used to. He loved curried rice and milk, lentils,
fruit and vegetables, and very soon he had a beautiful meal spread
out for himself on the ground. Then the fairies called out, one after
the other, what they wanted for food, things the woodcutter had never
heard of or seen, which made him quite discontented with what he had
chosen for himself.

7. What would you have wished for if you had had a magic pitcher?

8. Would it be a good thing, do you think, to be able to get food
without working for it or paying for it?

CHAPTER V

The next few days passed away like a dream, and at first Subha Datta
thought he had never been so happy in his life. The fairies often went
off together leaving him alone, only coming back to the clearing when
they wanted something out of the pitcher. The woodcutter got all kinds
of things he fancied for himself, but presently he began to wish he
had his wife and children with him to share his wonderful meals. He
began to miss them terribly, and he missed his work too. It was no
good cutting trees down and chopping up wood when all the food was
ready cooked. Sometimes he thought he would slip off home when the
fairies were away, but when he looked at the pitcher he could not
bear the thought of leaving it.

9. What sort of man do you think Subha Datta was from what this story
tells you about him?

10. What do you think was the chief cause of his becoming discontented
after he had been in the service of the fairies for a few days?

CHAPTER VI

Soon Subha Datta could not sleep well for thinking of the wife and
children he had deserted. Suppose they were hungry when he had plenty
to eat! It even came into his head that he might steal the pitcher
and take it home with him when the fairies were away. But he had not
after all the courage to do this; for even when the beautiful girls
were not in sight, he had a feeling that they would know if he tried
to go off with the pitcher, and that they would be able to punish him
in some terrible way. One night he had a dream that troubled him very
much. He saw his wife sitting crying bitterly in the little home he
used to love, holding the youngest child on her knee whilst the other
three stood beside her looking at her very, very sadly. He started up
from the ground on which he lay, determined to go home at once; but
at a little distance off he saw the fairies dancing in the moonlight,
and somehow he felt a