The lover advised them to get a basket and to put the walnuts in it, so
as to turn them into the cart.
‘Well,’ he said to himself, ‘I have already found someone more foolish
than those three.’
So he went on his way, and by-and-by he came to a wood. There he saw a
man who wanted to give his pig some acorns to eat, and was trying with
all his might to make him climb up the oak-tree.
‘What are you doing, my good man?’ asked he.
‘I want to make my pig eat some acorns, and I can’t get him to go up
the tree.’
‘If you were to climb up and shake down the acorns the pig would pick
them up.’
‘Oh, I never thought of that.’
‘Here is the second idiot,’ said the lover to himself.
Some way farther along the road he came upon a man who had never worn
any trousers, and who was trying to put on a pair. So he had fastened
them to a tree and was jumping with all his might up in the air so that
he should hit the two legs of the trousers as he came down.
‘It would be much better if you held them in your hands,’ said the
young man, ‘and then put your legs one after the other in each hole.’
‘Dear me to be sure! You are sharper than I am, for that never occurred
to me.’
And having found three people more foolish than his bride, or her
father or her mother, the lover went back to marry the young lady.
And in course of time they had a great many children.
Story from Hainaut.
(M. Lemoine. _La Tradition_. No, 34,)
KARI WOODENGOWN
There was once upon a time a King who had become a widower. His Queen
had left one daughter behind her, and she was so wise and so pretty
that it was impossible for any one to be wiser or prettier. For a long
time the King went sorrowing for his wife, for he had loved her
exceedingly; but at last he grew tired of living alone, and married a
Queen who was a widow, and she also had a daughter, who was just as
ill-favoured and wicked as the other was good and beautiful. The
stepmother and her daughter were envious of the King’s daughter because
she was so pretty, but so long as the King was at home they dared do
her no harm, because his love for her was so great.
Then there came a time when he made war on another King and went away
to fight, and then the new Queen thought that she could do what she
liked; so she both hungered and beat the King’s daughter and chased her
about into every corner. At last she thought that everything was too
good for her, and set her to work to look after the cattle. So she went
about with the cattle, and herded them in the woods and in the fields.
Of food she got little or none, and grew pale and thin, and was nearly
always weeping and sad. Among the herd there was a great blue bull,
which always kept itself very smart and sleek, and often came to the
King’s daughter and let her stroke him. So one day, when she was again
sitting crying and sorrowing, the Bull came up to her and asked why she
was always so full of care? She made no answer, but continued to weep.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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