98 



MATHUBIN AND MATHUBINE 



In the small village of Saint Jean, near Carcassonne, 

 there dwelt a young man named Mathurin, who made his 

 living by selling milk. This he always carried on his 

 shoulder when he went his rounds, in a large earthen jar, 

 but one unlucky day when he was going over a piece of 

 rough rocky ground, overgrown with gorse and heather, 

 his foot slipped, and his jar fell on a stone, and was broken 

 to atoms. 



Close to where the accident happened the rocks formed 

 a little hollow, into which the milk flowed, and soon 

 formed a small white lake. There was no use trying to 

 pour it back again, for the jar was too badly broken for 

 that, so the young man returned as fast as he could to 

 Saint Jean to get some more milk for his customers. 



This time he took care to get a stronger pot, and to 

 hold it more firmly on his shoulder ; and then he made 

 haste back along the path he had come, for it was getting 

 late, and everybody would be thinking about breakfast. 



On reaching the place where he had slipped and 

 fallen, he found that a splendid adder had taken advan- 

 tage of his misfortunes and was lapping up the pool of 

 milk with the utmost enjoyment. As he came near, the 

 adder turned and hissed, and showed quite plainly that she 

 did not intend to allow anybody to interfere with the piece 

 of good luck which had fallen in her way. The young 

 milkman understood the hint, and was, besides, in a 

 hurry, so he passed on quickly, and left the adder to 

 finish her breakfast. 



