What is the moral of "The Milkmaid and Her Pail"?

Do not count your chickens before they are hatched — do not build plans on gains you have not yet made. The story is sometimes set with the moral "castles in the air", and the whole chain of imagined riches is destroyed by a single careless movement.

Why must the daydream lead to a physical action?

Because that is how the milk is spilt. The toss of the head has to belong to the dream and cause the accident in the real world at the same time. Completing the story without that connection loses the neatness that makes it famous.

Should each step of the daydream be included?

Yes, in order — milk to eggs, eggs to chickens, chickens to a gown, gown to admirers. The chain matters because the further it goes the more absurd it becomes, and the greater the fall when it collapses in a moment.

English · Completing Story

The Milkmaid and Her Pail

Completing story: a milkmaid's daydream spills the milk that was to pay for it.

A milkmaid plans a fortune from a pail of milk and tosses her head at the wrong moment.

The story begins: A milkmaid was going to the market with a pail of milk on her head. As she walked she began to dream of what she would do with the money she would earn.

The Story

A milkmaid set out one morning for the market with a pail of fresh milk balanced on her head. The road was long and pleasant, and as she walked she began to think about the money the milk would fetch.

"With the money from this milk," she said to herself, "I shall buy three hundred eggs. Even if a few of them spoil, I shall still have two hundred and fifty chickens."

"I shall bring the chickens to market when the price is highest, just before the festival," she went on, "and with what I get for them I shall buy a fine new gown — a green one, with ribbons."

"When I wear that gown to the fair," she thought, "all the young men of the village will come and speak to me. But I shall not care for any of them."

"They will crowd about me and beg for a word, and I shall simply toss my head and turn away from them, like this —"

And as she said it she tossed her head, exactly as she had imagined. The pail slipped from her head and fell to the road, and the milk ran out and was lost in the dust.

The milkmaid stood looking down at the empty pail. The eggs, the chickens, the green gown and the young men had all gone with the milk, and she had nothing left to take to market.

She went home slowly and told her mother what had happened. Her mother listened, and then said gently, "My child, do not count your chickens before they are hatched."

The milkmaid never forgot that morning, and afterwards she kept her mind on the road she was walking rather than on the fortune she had not yet earned.

Moral: Do not count your chickens before they are hatched.