Page:The Pentamerone, or The Story of Stories.djvu/380

This page has been validated.
348

THE GOLDEN ROOT[1].

A person who is over-curious, and wants to know more than he ought, always carries the match in his hand to set fire to the powder-room of his own fortunes; and he who pries into others' affairs is frequently a loser in his own; for generally he who digs holes to search for treasures, comes to a ditch, into which he himself falls; as happened to the daughter of a gardener in the following manner.


There was once a gardener, who was so very very poor that, however hard he worked, he could not manage to get bread for his family: so he gave three little pigs to three daughters whom he had, that they might rear them, and thus get something for a little dowry. Then Pascuzza and Cice, who were the eldest, drove their little pigs to feed in a beautiful meadow, but they would not let Parmetella, who was the youngest daughter, go with them, and drove her away, telling her to go and feed

  1. Lo Turzo d'Oro—'the Trunk of Gold'—here, the part of the trunk where the roots begin.