no doubt will recall his orders for killing you; but, if you act otherwise, you will certainly he slaughtered. This discourse had the effect which the ass designed. The ox was greatly alarmed, and bellowed for fear. The merchant, who heard the conversation very attentively, fell into a loud fit of laughter. His wife was greatly surprised, and asked, Pray, husband, tell me what you laugh at so heartily, that I may laugh with you. Wife, replied he, you must content yourself with hearing me laugh. No, returned she, I will know the reason. I cannot afford you that satisfaction, answered he, and can only inform you that I laugh at what our ass just now said to the ox. The rest is a secret, which I am not allowed to reveal. What, demanded she, hinders you from revealing the secret? If I tell it you, replied he, I shall forfeit my life. You only jeer me, cried his wife; what you would have me believe cannot be true. If you do not directly satisfy me as to what you laugh at, and tell me what the ox and the ass said to one another, I swear by heaven that you and I shall never bed together again. Having spoken thus, she went into the house, and seating herself in a corner, cried there all night. Her husband lay alone, and finding next morning that she continued in the same humour, told her, she was very foolish to afflict herself in that manner; that the thing was not worth so much; that it concerned her very little to know, while it was of the utmost consequence to him to keep the secret: therefore, continued he, I conjure you to think no more of it. I shall still think so much of it, replied she, as never to forbear weeping till you have satisfied my curiosity. But I tell you very seriously, answered he, that it will cost me my life if I yield to your indiscreet solicitations. Let what will happen, said she, I do insist upon it. I perceive, resumed the merchant, that it is impossible to bring you to reason, and since I foresee that you will occasion your own death by your obstinacy, I will call in your children, that they may see you before you die. Accordingly he called for them, and sent for her father and mother, and other relations. When they were come, and heard the reason of their being summoned, they did all they could to convince her that she was in the wrong, but to no purpose: she told them that she would rather die than yield that point to her husband. Her father and mother spoke to her, and told her that what she desired to know was of no importance to her; but they could produce no effect upon her, either by their authority or entreaties. When her children saw that nothing would prevail to draw her out of that sullen temper, they wept bitterly. The merchant himself was half frantic, and almost ready to risk his own life to save that of his wife, whom he sincerely loved.