'There were so many people getting water at the moment that she could not push her way among them, so sat down to wait her turn, choosing a shady spot. She was a thoughtful girl, and, as she sat there waiting, she was saying in her soul:
'"O soul, I am a big girl now. A year or two and mother will unite me to a proper husband. The next year I shall have a little son. Again a year or two, he will be big enough to run about; and his father will make for him a pair of small red shoes, and he will come down to this pleasant spring, as children do, to splash the water. Being a bold lad, he will climb that tree."
'And then, as she beheld one great bough overhanging like a stretched-out arm, and realised how dangerous it was for climbing children, she thought:
'"He will fall down and break his neck."
'At once she burst out weeping inconsolably, making so great a din that all the people who had come for water flocked around her, asking: "O Nesîbeh, what has hurt thee?" And between her sobs, she told them:
'"I'm a big girl, now."
'"That is so, O beloved!"
'"A year or two, and mother will provide me with a husband."
'"It is likely."
'"Another year, and I shall have a little son."