The guest looked into it and found it dry.
'"No water here," he said.
'"Oh," sighed the priest, "to-day we are so thirsty with this work that we have emptied it, and so busy that the children have forgotten to refill it.

Rise, O Nesibeh, take the pitcher on thy head, and hasten to the spring and bring back water for our guest." 'The girl Nesibeh, who was fourteen years of age, rose up obediently, shaking off the mulberry leaves and caterpillars from her clothing.
Taking up the pitcher, she went out through the village to the spring, which gushed out of the rock beneath a spreading pear tree.
'There were so many people getting water at the moment that she could not push her way among them, so sat down to wait her turn, choosing a shady spot.

She was a thoughtful girl, and, as she sat there waiting, she was saying in her soul: '"O soul, I am a big girl now.

A year or two and mother will unite me to a proper husband.

The next year I shall have a little son.