Page:The Children Who Followed the Piper.djvu/53

 all the country that we have come through we found two only kind to strangers—you two, Baucis and Philemon. Ask now a boon from us. Whatsoever you ask now the gods will grant you."

Then Baucis and Philemon both asked for the same thing—that they might be left together, and that neither one should ever come to look upon the tomb of the other. This the gods granted to them. One day they would die, but when that day came they would both pass away at the same instant.

Jupiter and Mercury left their powers in the pitcher and in the basket. Whatever was poured into the pitcher, whether wine or milk or water, would keep welling up, and would be always at the same level, no matter how much was poured out of it. And no matter what was taken out of the basket, whether bread or fruit or honey, it would always remain filled with the same things.

And the gods also changed the house of Baucis and Philemon. That house that was made of