The Widow and Her Little Maids

A WIDOW who had great reputation as a housekeeper, because she was so fond of cleaning, was waited upon by two little Maids.

She herself was wakened before dawn by the crowing of the cock, and would rise at once and call her Maids.

The Maids, who had no taste for such excessive tidiness, and who were kept weary by such constant labor, held a spite against the poor cock for rousing their mistress so early.

"If it were not for him," they said, "the mistress would sleep till the sun is well up. Let us kill the cock, since there is no other way to stop his loud crowing."

But the mistress, no longer hearing the cock, was unable to tell the time, and so often woke her Maids in the middle of the night and set them to work.