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THE BREAKER OF EGGS.

a belly in which one might break eggs for an hundred years without doing aught else.

One day she loitered over long at this pleasant pursuit, and her mistress fell to scolding her when she descended, saying:

"Thou sly wench! Thou hast been in mischief with that man above! Idiot! Little hussy! What hast been about up there?"

"Naught, madam. Be not wroth; 'tis as I shall tell thee."

"Thou hast been after no good with that man above."

"Nay, madam, thou dost him wrong; he is the most honest man in the world. I had eggs in my belly, and he broke them for me."

"Eggs, thou slut! what eggs?"

"Behold, madam, if 'tis not so; I will lift my smock; thou canst see my front part, which is yet all damp with the white of the eggs, which came out when he broke them."

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