Ancilla, cum aquam hausisset, ad culinam rediit et dixit se diutius apud puteum moratam esse, quia situlam e puteo trahere difficilius erat.

Because this is a cum clause in past narrative. In Classical Latin, cum meaning when, after, or since often takes the subjunctive when it gives background or circumstances for the main action.

So cum aquam hausisset means something like when/after she had drawn the water.

The subjunctive here is not showing doubt. It is just the normal construction for this kind of cum clause.

The pluperfect shows that this action happened before the action of the main verb rediit.

• hausisset = she had drawn
• rediit = she returned

So first she drew the water, and after that she returned.

It comes from the verb haurio, haurire, hausi, haustum, meaning to draw, especially water.

The perfect stem is haus-, so:

• hausi = I drew
• hausisset = she had drawn

This is a good example of how a Latin perfect stem can look quite different from the present stem.

Aquam is accusative singular.

It is the direct object of hausisset, because it is the thing being drawn. In other words, the servant girl drew water.

Ad takes the accusative and often expresses motion toward a place.

So:

• ad culinam = to the kitchen

This is why culinam is accusative singular.

After verbs of saying, thinking, knowing, hearing, and similar verbs, Latin very often uses indirect statement, also called the accusative-and-infinitive construction.

Here:

• dixit = she said
• se = the subject of the indirect statement, in the accusative
• moratam esse = the infinitive part, meaning had delayed or had stayed

So dixit se diutius apud puteum moratam esse means literally:

she said herself to have lingered longer by the well

Natural English turns that into she said that she had stayed longer by the well.

Se is the reflexive pronoun, used when the subject of the subordinate statement is the same as the subject of the main verb.

The main subject is ancilla, and the person spoken about in the indirect statement is also the servant girl herself. So Latin uses se.

If it were talking about some other woman, not the servant girl, then eam might be used instead.

Because the action of delaying happened before the act of speaking.

In indirect statement, the tense of the infinitive shows time relative to the main verb:

• present infinitive = same time as the main verb
• perfect infinitive = earlier than the main verb
• future infinitive = later than the main verb

So:

• dixit se morari = she said that she was delaying / staying
• dixit se moratam esse = she said that she had delayed / had stayed

Since she is explaining why she was late, the perfect infinitive is the right choice.

Because it agrees with se, which refers back to ancilla, a singular female subject.

Also, moror, morari is a deponent verb. Deponent verbs use passive-looking forms with active meaning. Their perfect infinitive is made with the perfect participle plus esse:

• masculine singular: moratum esse
• feminine singular: moratam esse
• neuter singular: moratum esse

Since the speaker is the servant girl, moratam esse is feminine singular.

Diutius is the comparative adverb of diu, meaning for a long time.

So diutius means:

• for a longer time
• too long
• longer than expected

Latin often uses a comparative without explicitly stating what it is being compared to. Here the idea is that she stayed at the well longer than normal or longer than she intended.

Apud means at, by, or near, and it takes the accusative.

So:

• puteum is accusative singular
• apud puteum = by the well or at the well

This is a fixed feature of the preposition apud: it always governs the accusative.

Because quia here gives a straightforward reason: because it was harder to pull the bucket out of the well.

In Latin, quia normally takes the indicative when the reason is presented as a real fact. So erat is exactly what we expect.

Sometimes Latin can use the subjunctive in reason clauses when the reason is presented as someone else's idea or allegation, but that is not what is happening here.

Here trahere is an infinitive used as the subject of erat.

So the basic structure is:

• trahere ... erat = to draw ... was
• more naturally in English: drawing ... was

Difficilius is the neuter comparative form of difficilis, used predicatively with the infinitive. So the sense is:

• it was rather difficult
• it was more difficult
• it was harder

A very literal analysis would be:

to pull the bucket out of the well was harder

Both e and ex mean out of or from. They are simply two forms of the same preposition.

Very often:

• e is used before consonants
• ex is used before vowels or h

Since puteo begins with a consonant, e puteo is perfectly normal.

Situlam is accusative singular of situla, meaning bucket or pail.

It is the direct object of trahere:

• situlam trahere = to pull the bucket

So the idea is that the servant girl was delayed because pulling the bucket up out of the well was more difficult.

Yes, but mostly in the sense that Latin word order is flexible and often used for clarity or emphasis rather than strict grammatical necessity.

A few things to notice:

• Ancilla comes first, setting the topic.
• cum aquam hausisset gives background before the main action rediit.
• dixit se ... moratam esse keeps the indirect statement together in a recognizable pattern.
• quia situlam e puteo trahere difficilius erat saves the explanation for the end, which is a natural place for the reason.

Even if some words were moved around, the cases and verb forms would still show the grammar clearly.