Where there is a river , sooner or later people will come ; so , hanging myself on a tree , I watched and waited . For a moment I lost heart when I fell once more into the hands of my old master the wild cat , but my hopes rose again as I saw he was making for the river bank opposite where you were standing . That was my chance , and I took it . And now , ladies , I have only to say that , if ever I can do anything to help you , go to the top of that high mountain and knock three times at the iron door at the north side , and I will come to you . ' So , with a low bow , he vanished from before them , leaving the maidens weeping at having lost in one moment both the ball and the prince . -LSB- Adapted from North American Indian Legends . -RSB- Which was the Foolishest ? In a little village that stood on a wide plain , where you could see the sun from the moment he rose to the moment he set , there lived two couples side by side . The men , who worked under the same master , were quite good friends , but the wives were always quarrelling , and the subject they quarrelled most about was -- which of the two had the stupidest husband . Unlike most women -- who think that anything that belongs to them must be better than what belongs to anyone else -- each thought her husband the more foolish of the two . ` You should just see what he does ! ' one said to her neighbour . ` He puts on the baby 's frock upside down , and , one day , I found him trying to feed her with boiling soup , and her mouth was scalded for days after . Then he picks up stones in the road and sows them instead of potatoes , and one day he wanted to go into the garden from the top window , because he declared it was a shorter way than through the door . ' ` That is bad enough , of course , ' answered the other ; ` but it is really NOTHING to what I have to endure every day from MY husband . If , when I am busy , I ask him to go and feed the poultry , he is certain to give them some poisonous stuff instead of their proper food , and when I visit the yard next I find them all dead . Once he even took my best bonnet , when I had gone away to my sick mother , and when I came back I found he had given it to the hen to lay her eggs in . And you know yourself that , only last week , when I sent him to buy a cask of butter , he returned driving a hundred and fifty ducks which someone had induced him to take , and not one of them would lay . ' ` Yes , I am afraid he IS trying , ' replied the first ; ` but let us put them to the proof , and see which of them is the most foolish . ' So , about the time that she expected her husband home from work , she got out her spinning-wheel , and sat busily turning it , taking care not even to look up from her work when the man came in .
XXXXX some minutes he stood with his mouth open watching her , and as she still remained silent , he said at last : ` Have you gone mad , wife , that you sit spinning without anything on the wheel ? '
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