The Wonderful PumpNot many years ago there lived on a stony, barren New England
farm a man and his wife. They were sober, honest people, working
hard from early morning until dark to enable them to secure a
scanty living from their poor land.
Their house, a small, one-storied building, stood upon the side
of a steep hill, and the stones lay so thickly about it that scarce
anything green could grow from the ground. At the foot of the hill,
a quarter of a mile from the house by the winding path, was a small
brook, and the woman was obliged to go there for water and to carry
it up the hill to the house. This was a tedious task, and with the
other hard work that fell to her share had made her gaunt and bent
and lean.
Yet she never complained, but meekly and faithfully performed
he
