It is probable that the greatest disquietude which a child ever experienced was Pandora's vexation at not being able to discover the secret of the mysterious box. This was at first only the faint shadow of trouble, but every day it grew more and more substantial.
"Where can the box have come from?" Pandora continually kept saying to herself and to Epimetheus. "And what in the world can be inside of it?"
"Always talking about this box!" said Epimetheus, for he had grown extremely tired of the subject. "I wish, dear Pandora, you would try to talk of something else. Come, let us go and gather some ripe figs and eat them under the trees for our supper. And I know a vine that has the sweetest and juiciest grapes you ever tasted."
"Always talking about grapes and figs!" cried Pandora, pettishly.
"Well then," said Epimetheus, who was a very good-tempered child, "let us run out and have a merry time with our playmates."
"I am tired of merry times and don't care if I never have any more!" answered our pettish little Pandora. "And besides, I never do have any. This ugly box! I am so taken up with thinking about it all the time. I insist upon your telling me what is inside of it."
"As I have already said, fifty times over, I do not know!" replied Epimetheus, getting a little vexed. "How, then, can I tell you what is inside?"
"You might open it," said Pandora, looking sideways at Epimetheus, "and then we could see for ourselves."
"Pandora, what are you thinking of?" exclaimed Epimetheus.
And his face expressed so much horror at the idea of looking into a box which had been given to him on the condition of his never opening it, that Pandora thought it best not to suggest it any more.
adapted from "The Paradise of Children" by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
9
What will most likely happen next?
A.
Pandora will apologize to Epimetheus and forget about the box.
B.
Epimetheus will hide the box to keep it away from Pandora.
C.
Pandora will sneak around and look in Epimetheus' box.
D.
Epimetheus will give in and allow Pandora to open the box.