THE MILD MAN AND HIS CANTANKEROUS WIFE.
THERE lived once upon a time, in great
poverty, a countryman and his wife: he
was mild as a calf, and she as cunning as a
serpent. She abused and drubbed her husband for
every trifle. One day she begged some corn of a
neighbour to make a loaf of bread, and she sent
her husband with it to the mill to have it ground.
The miller ground the corn, but charged them
nothing on account of their poverty; and the
countryman set out on his return home with his
pan full of flour. But on a sudden there arose such
a strong wind that in the twinkle of an eye all the
flour was blown out of the pan, which he carried
on his head. So he went home and told his wife;
and when she heard it she fell to scolding and
beating him without mercy; and she threatened
him on and on, until at length she grew tired;
then she ordered him to go to the wind which had
blown away the flour and get paid for it, either in
money or in as much flour as there had been in the
pan.
The poor countryman, whose bones ached with
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