Lilac Fairy Book

Chapter 26 The Gullible Husband

Once upon a time, there was a young man in Ireland who was looking for a wife. Among the girls around him, he liked the only daughter of a farmer best.The girl was willing, and so was the father, so they got married soon and lived in the old man's house after marriage.Gradually, the season came for digging peat and stacking the peat to dry, so that there would be no shortage of burning in winter.So one sunny day, the girl came to the swamp with her husband, father, and mother.

They worked hard for a long time, and at last they were all hungry, so the girl went home and brought food, and fed the horses as well.As she entered the stable, she suddenly saw the heavy pack of the spotted mare hanging over her head, and jumped up, saying to herself, "If the pack falls and hits me, I will How dreadful it must be!" and she sat down at once under the pack, which frightened her so much, and began to cry.

At this time, the people in the swamp were getting hungry.

"What happened to her?" they asked.Finally Mom said she couldn't wait and had to go back and see what was going on.

The old lady could not find the bride in the kitchen or the dairy, so she came to the stable and found her daughter crying.

"What's the matter, my dear?"

The girl sobbed and said, "When I came in, I saw that big pack, and I thought how terrible it would be if it fell and crushed me to death." She cried even louder.

The old lady clapped her hands and said, "Oh, that's right after thinking about it. If that's the case, what should I do?" After she finished speaking, she sat next to her daughter, and they clenched their fists tightly, tears streaming down my face.

"Something strange must have happened," exclaimed the old swamp farmer.At this time, he was not only hungry, but also bad-tempered. "I have to find them." So he went, and found them in the stable.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Oh!" replied the wife, "when the girl came home and found the pack hanging above her head, she thought it would be terrible if it fell and crushed her to death."

"Ah, think about it too." He clapped his hands, sat down beside them, and began to cry.

Soon it was dark, and the boy came home very hungry.Look, there's all three there, weeping together in the stable.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Your wife came home," replied the old farmer, "and when he saw the pack hanging over his head, he thought how terrible it would be if it fell and killed her."

"Is it? But it didn't fall," answered the boy.He left them and went to the kitchen to have some supper and let them cry their fill.

The next day, he got up at dawn and said to the old man, the old lady, and his wife, "Goodbye! Unless I find three more people as stupid as you, I will never set foot in this house again." He left When I came to the city, I saw a house with its door wide open, so I went in.There is no man in the house, only a few women spinning.

"You are not from this city," he said.

"You're right," they answered, "and you aren't, are you?"

"Nor am I," he replied. "Is this place habitable?"

The women looked at each other.

"The men in this city are very stupid. They believe everything we say," they replied.

"Is that so? Here is a gold ring," he answered, "and if any of you can convince your husband of the strangest things, I will give her the ring."

As soon as the first husband came home, the wife said to him, "You are sick!"

"Really?" he asked.

"Yes, you are ill," she replied, "take off your clothes and lie down."

So he lay down.After he lay down, his wife came up to him and said, "You are dead."

"Oh, is it?" he asked.

"That's right," she said, "close your eyes and keep your hands and feet still."

Then he felt that he was indeed dead.

The second husband came home and his wife said to him, "You are not my husband!"

"Oh, didn't I?" he asked.

"No, you are not," she answered, and he ran out and slept in the forest.

When the third man returned, his wife filled him with supper, and then, as usual, he went to bed.The next morning a boy knocked on the door and told him to go to a dead man's funeral.He was just about to get up when his wife stopped him.

"There's still enough time," she said.He lay motionless on the bed until he heard the funeral procession pass under the window.

"Get up, hurry up," cried the wife, and the man hurriedly got up from the bed and began to look around.

"Hey, where are my clothes?" he asked.

"You're so stupid, of course it's on you!" replied the woman.

"Really?" he asked.

"Of course," she answered, "hurry, or the dead will be buried by the time you get there."

So he left the house and ran as fast as he could, and when the mourners saw a man running towards them in only his nightshirt, they all forgot their duty and hid in terror.A naked man stood alone at one end of the coffin.

Soon a man came running out of the woods and said to him, "Do you know me?"

"No," replied the naked man, "I don't know you."

"Then why don't you wear clothes?" the man asked.

"Am I naked? My wife told me I was," he replied.

"My wife says I'm dead," said the man in the coffin.

Hearing his voice, the two men were terrified and ran straight to the house.The man in the coffin got up and followed the other two.In the end, his wife got the gold ring because he was more stupid than the other two.

(End of this chapter)