COUNTING CHICKENS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23037, 14 May 1938, Page 8 (Supplement)

COUNTING CHICKENS

Dear Anne Shirley.—We all know the old proverb, "Don't count your chicken* before they're hatched"; probably most of us have counted them, and regretted it afterwards! Here is the French version of the proverb, as spoken by a " milk-maid going to the market to sell milk: —" What a lovely jar of milk I $ am carrying on my head! Such good milk! When I get to the market I will - be sure to sell a at a good price. What will I do with the money I receive v* for the milk? I will buy some eggs. f Then I will have some beautiful chickens. Later on I will sell tha chickens, very dearlv; then I will buy a dear little pig. When it has grown big and fat, I will take it to the market and sell it at a good price, and buy a cow and a calf. What a beautiful calf I I can see it already. When I take it home I will put it in a field with its mother, and I will watch it jump, jump like this " •. . I Then the milkmaid gave a little jump and the jar of milk fell down and ■! broke into a thousand pieces! "Goodbye milk, good-bye eggs, chickens, pig. cow and calf! Good-bye everything!">J This is an amusing version, isn't it?— From Muriel Cole (17)jssPokeno. *