Sweet Porridge
2 min readages 4–8
A poor girl receives a magical pot from an old woman that cooks sweet porridge on command. When her mother forgets the magic word to stop it, the pot cooks endlessly and cooks on and on until porridge fills nearly the whole town.
Once upon a time there was a poor but good little girl who lived alone with her mother, and they had nothing left to eat. So the child went out into the forest, and there she met an old woman who already knew of her trouble. The woman gave her a little pot, and told her that when she said, "Cook, little pot, cook," it would cook good, sweet porridge, and when she said, "Stop, little pot," it would stop cooking again.
The girl carried the pot home to her mother, and now they were free of their poverty and their hunger, and they ate sweet porridge as often as they liked.
One day, when the girl had gone out, her mother said, "Cook, little pot, cook." And it cooked, and she ate until she was full. Then she wanted the little pot to stop cooking, but she did not know the word. So it went on cooking, and the porridge rose over the edge, and still it cooked on, until the kitchen and the whole house were full, and then the next house, and then the whole street, as if it meant to feed the hunger of the entire world. Everyone was in great distress, and no one knew how to stop it.
At last, when only a single house was left, the child came home, and she simply said, "Stop, little pot," and the pot stopped and gave up cooking. And whoever wished to return to the town had to eat their way back.