Sweet Porridge

There was once a poor but worthy girl who lived alone with her mother in a little cottage near the forest. They were very poor, and often went hungry to bed.

One day, they no longer had anything to eat. So, the girl went into the forest, hoping to find some nuts or berries. There an old woman met her. She knew of the girl’s sorrow, and presented her with a little pot.

“If you put this on the stove and say ‘Cook, little pot, cook,’ it will cook up good, sweet millet porridge for you and your mother. And when you say ‘Stop, little pot, stop,’ it will stop cooking until the next time.

Overjoyed, the girl took the pot home to her mother. They became free from their poverty and hunger, and ate sweet porridge as often as they wanted.

Soon the girl went into the forest to gather firewood and was gone a long time. Her mother became hungry, and put the pot on the stove and said, “Cook, little pot, cook.” And it did cook, and she ate until she was full. But when she wanted the pot to stop cooking, but she did not remember the words.

So the little pot went on cooking and the porridge rose over the edge. And still it cooked on until the kitchen and whole house were full.

As the little pot kept on cooking, the porridge flooded the next house, and then the whole street, just as if it wanted to satisfy the hunger of the whole world.

It was terrible, and no one knew how to stop it. At last when only one single house in the village remained empty, the girl came home and saw what had happened.

She shouted, “Stop, little pot, stop!” And the pot stopped cooking.

But the only way the villagers could return to their homes was to eat their way through the porridge.