All that day the man lay in bed , and whenever his wife entered the room and asked him , with a shake of the head , how he felt , he always replied that he was getting worse . At last , in the evening , she burst into tears , and when he inquired what was the matter , she sobbed out : ` Oh , my poor , poor husband , are you really dead ? I must go to-morrow and order your coffin . ' Now , when the man heard this , a cold shiver ran through his body , and all at once he knew that he was as well as he had ever been in his life . ` Oh , no , no ! ' he cried , ' I feel quite recovered ! Indeed , I think I shall go out to work . ' ` You will do no such thing , ' replied his wife . ` Just keep quite quiet , for before the sun rises you will be a dead man . ' The man was very frightened at her words , and lay absolutely still while the undertaker came and measured him for his coffin ; and his wife gave orders to the gravedigger about his grave . That evening the coffin was sent home , and in the morning at nine o'clock the woman put him on a long flannel garment , and called to the undertaker 's men to fasten down the lid and carry him to the grave , where all their friends were waiting them . Just as the body was being placed in the ground the other woman 's husband came running up , dressed , as far as anyone could see , in no clothes at all . Everybody burst into shouts of laughter at the sight of him , and the men laid down the coffin and laughed too , till their sides nearly split . The dead man was so astonished at this behaviour , that he peeped out of a little window in the side of the coffin , and cried out : ' I should laugh as loudly as any of you , if I were not a dead man . ' When they heard the voice coming from the coffin the other people suddenly stopped laughing , and stood as if they had been turned into stone . Then they rushed with one accord to the coffin , and lifted the lid so that the man could step out amongst them . ` Were you really not dead after all ? ' asked they . ` And if not , why did you let yourself be buried ? ' At this the wives both confessed that they had each wished to prove that her husband was stupider than the other .
But the villagers declared XXXXX they could not decide which was the most foolish -- the man who allowed himself to be persuaded that he was wearing fine clothes when he was dressed in nothing , or the man who let himself be buried when he was alive and well .
At as for in into of that through to while