Do you think that you should be less
curious than Pandora? If you were left alone with the box, might you not
feel a little tempted to lift the lid? But you would not do it. Oh, fie!
No, no! Only, if you thought there were toys in it, it would be so very
hard to let slip an opportunity of taking just one peep! I know not
whether Pandora expected any toys; for none had yet begun to be made,
probably, in those days, when the world itself was one great plaything
for the children that dwelt upon it. But Pandora was convinced that
there was something very beautiful and valuable in the box; and
therefore she felt just as anxious to take a peep as any of these little
girls, here around me, would have felt. And, possibly, a little more so;
but of that I am not quite so certain.
On this particular day, however, which we have so long been talking
about her curiosity grew so much greater than it usually was, that, at
last, she approached the box. She was more than half determined to open
it, if she could. Ah, naughty Pandora!
First, however, she tried to lift it. It was heavy; quite too heavy for
the slender strength of a child like Pandora. She raised one end of the
box a few inches from the floor, and let it fall again, with a pretty
loud thump. A moment afterward, she almost fancied that she heard
something stir inside of the box. She applied her ear as closely as
possible, and listened.
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