THE TIMOROUS FIANCEE.[1]
TWO young girls held converse together. Quoth one:
"Like thee, little one, I, too, will never marry."
"And why should we marry against our will?" said the other. "We have no masters."
"Hast seen, little one, that instrument with which men make trial upon us?"
"I have seen it."
"And is it not huge?"
"Little one, it is assuredly of the size of an arm!"
"One would never come out of it alive."
"Come, I will tickle thee with a straw."
"That also hurteth me."
The foolish one lay down, and the wiser fell to tickling her with a straw. "Ah! that hurteth!" she repeated.
Now the father of one of the young girls forced her to take a husband; she waited two nights, then went to see her young friend.
"Good day, little one," she said.
The latter besought her to relate, forthwith what had fallen.
- ↑ Kruptadia: Heilbronn: 1883: Henninger Fréres: vol. 1: Secret Stories from the Russian
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