The Milkmaid and Her Pail
A free B1-level English story for language learners, readable online in 7 languages, with an option to listen via the free Storyteller app.
A milkmaid daydreams about the riches her milk will bring until her wishful thinking costs her everything.
A farmer's daughter had been out to milk the cows, and was returning to the dairy carrying her pail of milk upon her head. As she walked along, she fell a-musing after this fashion: "The milk in this pail will provide me with cream, which I will make into butter and take to market to sell. With the money I will buy a number of eggs, and these, when hatched, will produce chickens, and by and by I shall have quite a large poultry-yard."
一个农夫的女儿去给奶牛挤奶，正提着一桶牛奶顶在头上往乳品房走。走着走着，她开始这样幻想起来：“这桶牛奶能提炼出奶油，我可以把奶油做成黄油拿到集市上去卖。用卖来的钱，我可以买些鸡蛋，等孵出小鸡后，用不了多久，我就会有一个很大的养鸡场了。”
"Then I shall sell some of my fowls, and with the money which they will bring in I will buy myself a new gown, which I shall wear when I go to the fair; and all the young fellows will admire it, and come and make love to me, but I shall toss my head and have nothing to say to them."
“然后我要卖掉一些家禽，用赚来的钱给自己买一件新裙子，赶集的时候穿上它，所有的年轻小伙子都会赞赏不已，纷纷前来向我求爱，可我要昂起头，对他们理都不理。”
Forgetting all about the pail, and suiting the action to the word, she tossed her head. Down went the pail, all the milk was spilled, and all her fine castles in the air vanished in a moment!
她完全忘了头上的水桶，说着就真的把头一昂。水桶应声落地，牛奶全洒了出来，她那些美好的空中楼阁也在瞬间化为乌有！
Do not count your chickens before they are hatched.
小鸡孵出之前，别急着数数。
