The Believing Husbands

 Once upon a time there dwelt in the land of Erin a young man who was seeking a wife, and of all the maidens¹ round about none pleased him as well as the only daughter of a farmer. The girl was willing and the father was willing, and very soon they were married and went to live at the farm. By and bye the season came when they must cut the peats and pile them up to dry, so that they might have fires in the winter. So on a fine day the girl and her husband, and the father and his wife all went out upon the moor².

 

They worked hard for many hours, and at length grew hungry, so the young woman was sent home to bring them food, and also to give the horses their dinner. When she went into the stables, she suddenly saw the heavy pack-saddle of the speckled mare³ just over her head, and she jumped and said to herself:

 

‘Suppose that pack-saddle were to fall and kill me, how dreadful it would be!’ and she sat down just under the pack-saddle she was so much afraid of, and began to cry.

 

Now the others out on the moor grew hungrier and hungrier.

 

‘What can have become of her?’ asked they, and at length the mother declared that she would wait no longer, and must go and see what had happened.

 

As the bride was nowhere in the kitchen or the dairy, the old woman went into the stable, where she found her daughter weeping bitterly.

 

‘What is the matter, my dove?’ and the girl answered, between her sobs⁴:

 

‘When I came in and saw the pack-saddle over my head, I thought how dreadful it would be if it fell and killed me,’ and she cried louder than before.

 

The old woman struck her hands together: ‘Ah, to think of it! if that were to be, what should I do?’ and she sat down by her daughter, and they both wrung⁵ their hands and let their tears flow.

 

‘Something strange must have occurred,’ exclaimed the old farmer on the moor, who by this time was not only hungry, but cross. ‘I must go after them.’ And he went and found them in the stable.

 

‘What is the matter?’ asked he.

 

‘Oh!’ replied his wife, ‘when our daughter came home, did she not see the pack-saddle over her head, and she thought how dreadful it would be if it were to fall and kill her.’

 

‘Ah, to think of it!’ exclaimed he, striking his hands together, and he sat down beside them and wept too.

 

As soon as night fell the young man returned full of hunger, and there they were, all crying together in the stable.

 

‘What is the matter?’ asked he.

 

‘When thy wife came home,’ answered the farmer, ‘she saw the pack-saddle over her head, and she thought how dreadful it would be if it were to fall and kill her.’

 

‘Well, but it didn’t fall,’ replied the young man, and he went off to the kitchen to get some supper, leaving them to cry as long as they liked.

 

The next morning he got up with the sun, and said to the old man and to the old woman and to his wife:

 

‘Farewell: my foot shall not return to the house till I have found other three people as silly as you,’ and he walked away till he came to the town, and seeing the door of a cottage standing⁶ open wide, he entered. No man was present, but only some women spinning at their wheels.

 

‘You do not belong to this town,’ said he.

 

‘You speak truth,’ they answered, ‘nor you either?’

 

‘I do not,’ replied he, ‘but is it a good place to live in?’

 

The women looked at each other.

 

‘The men of the town are so silly that we can make them believe anything we please,’ said they.

 

‘Well, here is a gold ring,’ replied he, ‘and I will give it to the one amongst you who can make her husband believe the most impossible thing,’ and he left them.

 

As soon as the first husband came home his wife said to him:

 

‘Thou art sick!’

 

‘Am I?’ asked he.

 

‘Yes, thou art,’ she answered; ‘take off thy clothes and lie down.’

 

So he did, and when he was in his bed his wife went to him and said:

 

‘Thou art dead.’

 

‘Oh, am I?’ asked he.

 

‘Thou art,’ said she; ‘shut thine eyes and stir neither hand nor foot.’

 

And dead he felt sure he was.

 

Soon the second man came home, and his wife said to him:

 

‘You are not my husband!’

 

‘Oh, am I not?’ asked he.

 

‘No, it is not you,’ answered she, so he went away and slept in the wood.

 

When the third man arrived his wife gave him his supper, and after that he went to bed, just as usual. The next morning a boy knocked at the door, bidding him attend the burial of the man who was dead, and he was just going to get up when his wife stopped him.

 

‘Time enough,’ said she, and he lay still till he heard the funeral passing the window.

 

‘Now rise, and be quick,’ called the wife, and the man jumped out of bed in a great hurry, and began to look about him.

 

‘Why, where are my clothes?’ asked he.

 

‘Silly that you are, they are on your back, of course,’ answered the woman.

 

‘Are they?’ said he.

 

‘They are,’ said she, ‘and make haste lest the burying be ended before you get there.’

 

Then off he went, running hard, and when the mourners saw a man coming towards them with nothing on but his nightshirt, they forgot in their fright what they were there for, and fled to hide themselves. And the naked man stood alone at the head of the coffin⁷.

 

Very soon a man came out of the wood and spoke⁸ to him.

 

‘Do you know me?’

 

‘Not I,’ answered the naked man. ‘I do not know you.’

 

‘But why are you naked?’ asked the first man.

 

‘Am I naked? My wife told me that I had all my clothes on,’ answered he.

 

‘And my wife told me that I myself was dead,’ said the man in the coffin.

 

But at the sound of his voice the two men were so terrified that they ran straight home, and the man in the coffin got up and followed them, and it was his wife that gained the gold ring, as he had been sillier than the other two.

 

From ‘West Highland⁹ Tales.’

 

 

1 maidens   

处女( maiden的名词复数 )； 少女； 未婚女子； （板球运动）未得分的一轮投球

参考例句：

• stories of knights and fair maidens 关于骑士和美女的故事
• Transplantation is not always successful in the matter of flowers or maidens. 花儿移栽往往并不成功，少女们换了环境也是如此。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

2 moor   

n.荒野，沼泽；vt.(使)停泊；vi.停泊

参考例句：

• I decided to moor near some tourist boats.我决定在一些观光船附近停泊。
• There were hundreds of the old huts on the moor.沼地上有成百上千的古老的石屋。

3 mare   

n.母马，母驴

参考例句：

• The mare has just thrown a foal in the stable.那匹母马刚刚在马厩里产下了一只小马驹。
• The mare foundered under the heavy load and collapsed in the road.那母马因负载过重而倒在路上。

4 sobs   

啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She was struggling to suppress her sobs. 她拼命不让自己哭出来。
• She burst into a convulsive sobs. 她突然抽泣起来。

5 wrung   

绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水）

参考例句：

• He has wrung the words from their true meaning. 他曲解这些字的真正意义。
• He wrung my hand warmly. 他热情地紧握我的手。

6 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

7 coffin   

n.棺材，灵柩

参考例句：

• When one's coffin is covered,all discussion about him can be settled.盖棺论定。
• The coffin was placed in the grave.那口棺材已安放到坟墓里去了。

8 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

9 highland   

n.(pl.)高地，山地

参考例句：

• The highland game is part of Scotland's cultural heritage.苏格兰高地游戏是苏格兰文化遗产的一部分。
• The highland forests where few hunters venture have long been the bear's sanctuary.这片只有少数猎人涉险的高山森林，一直都是黑熊的避难所。