So they all left off crying and went away hand in hand. Fairies do
not want very much to eat. They can live on fruit and dew, and they
never let anything make them sad for long at a time. They go out of
this story now, but you need not be unhappy about them, because you
may be very sure that they got no real harm from their generosity to
Subha Datta in letting him take the pitcher.

19. Do you think the woodcutter was wrong to ask for the pitcher?

20. What would have been the best thing for Subha Datta to ask for,
if he had decided to let the fairies keep their pitcher?



CHAPTER XI


You can just imagine what a surprise it was to Subha Datta's wife
and children when they saw him coming along the path leading to his
home. He did not bring the pitcher with him, but had hidden it in a
hollow tree in the wood near his cottage, for he did not mean any one
to know that he had it. He told his wife that he had lost his way in
the forest, and had been afraid he would never see her or his children
again, but he said nothing about the fairies. When his wife asked him
how he had got food, he told her a long story about the fruits he
had found, and she believed all he said, and determined to make up
to him now for all she thought he had suffered. When she called the
little girls to come and help her get a nice meal for their father,
Subha Datta said: "Oh, don't bother about that! I've brought something
back with me. I'll go and fetch it, but no one is to come with me."