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A young woman in a white cap, green laced bodice, and apron walks down a country lane, smiling with her eyes closed, a full wooden pail of milk on her head.

The Milkmaid and Her Pail

Aesop

2 min read ages 3 and up

A farmer’s daughter walks back from the meadow with a full pail of milk balanced on her head. With every step, she plans what that milk is going to buy her.

There was once a farmer’s daughter who had been out in the meadow to milk the cows. Now she was walking back to the dairy with the full pail balanced on her head, and as she went along, she began to daydream.

“The milk in this pail will give me cream,” she said to herself, “and I’ll churn the cream into butter and take it to market to sell. With the money I’ll buy a basket of eggs. The eggs will hatch into chickens, and by and by I’ll have a big poultry yard full of hens.”

The cows grazed behind her, and the path ran on ahead, but the milkmaid hardly noticed either. Her dream grew bigger with every step.

“Then I’ll sell some of my chickens and buy myself a new gown to wear to the fair. All the young fellows will admire it. They’ll come and court me, one after another, but I’ll just toss my head and have nothing to say to any of them.”

By now she had forgotten all about the pail. And she tossed her head, just as she meant to do at the fair.

By a hedge, the milkmaid smiles with her chin up and eyes closed, one hand on her hip, as the wooden pail tips off her cap and milk pours onto the lane.

Down came the pail, and every drop of milk spilled onto the ground. The butter, the eggs, the chickens, and the new gown were gone in a moment, and so were all the young fellows at the fair.

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Retold by Talerie from Aesop’s Fables: a new translation (opens in a new window) Public domain

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About this fable

V. S. Vernon Jones included “The Milkmaid and Her Pail” among the fables of Aesop in his English translation of 1912. George Fyler Townsend’s Aesop has it as “The Milk-Woman and Her Pail”. La Fontaine tells it in French and Samaniego in Spanish; in an old Castilian tale by Don Juan Manuel, a woman carries a pot of honey instead.

Our retelling follows Vernon Jones scene by scene: a farmer’s daughter carries a pail of milk on her head back to the dairy, dreams of butter, eggs, chickens and a new gown, tosses her head and loses it all. We tell it in six short paragraphs and put his period wording into plain modern English.

Two tellings: Vernon Jones and La Fontaine

Vernon Jones (1912), our sourceLa Fontaine (1874 edition)
The milkmaida farmer’s daughter, never namedPerrette, a married woman
What she carriesa pail of milk on her heada pot of milk on a pad on her head
Where she goesback to the dairyto town
Her daydreambutter, eggs, chickens, a gown, admirerseggs, chickens, a pig, a cow and her calf
The spillshe tosses her headshe jumps
Afterwardsher castles in the air vanishshe goes to make her excuses to her husband
Moraldo not count your chickens before they are hatchedwho does not build castles in the air?
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The daydream in our text

Our milkmaid is a farmer’s daughter with no name, walking from the meadow back to the dairy with the full pail balanced on her head. On the way she plans it all: cream, butter, a basket of eggs, a poultry yard full of hens, then a new gown to wear to the fair. All the young fellows will come and court her, and she will toss her head and have nothing to say to them. Two small touches are ours alone: the cows grazing behind her, and a line saying that her dream grows bigger with every step. Lost in her plans, she forgets the pail, tosses her head, and the milk spills onto the ground.

Where Vernon Jones says her castles in the air vanished, our text names what is gone, from the butter to the young fellows at the fair. Our moral, printed apart below the story, is in our own words: “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.” It stays close to his “Do not count your chickens before they are hatched.” Nothing here should worry a child: the story stops at the spilled milk, and nobody scolds or punishes her.

Perrette, Samaniego’s milkmaid and doña Truhana

In La Fontaine’s “La Laitière et le Pot au lait” the milkmaid is called Perrette. She takes her pot of milk to town, dreams of a pig and of a cow with her calf, jumps, and drops the milk; she then goes to make her excuses to her husband, in great danger of being beaten. In Samaniego’s “La lechera” the milkmaid carries her jug of milk (a cántaro) on her head to market, also dreams of a pig, a cow and a calf, and also jumps. In an old Castilian tale from Don Juan Manuel’s Conde Lucanor, Patronio tells Count Lucanor about doña Truhana, a poor woman taking a pot of honey to market on her head. She dreams of eggs, hens and sheep, laughs, strikes her forehead with her hand, and the pot breaks. Townsend’s “The Milk-Woman and Her Pail” has the same outline as Vernon Jones’s, but it counts the eggs and chickens and brings in the Christmas parties.

Doña Truhana has a name, but she carries honey. Of the women who carry milk, only La Fontaine’s is named. Ours, like those of Vernon Jones, Townsend and Samaniego, has no name.

Sources

Period texts

Claims checked against these sources on November 4, 2026.

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