ed to drive
away her melancholy. So he sent for folks who walk on stilts, fellows
who jump through hoops, for boxers, for conjurers, for jugglers who
perform sleight-of-hand tricks, for strong men, for dancing dogs, for
leaping clowns, for the donkey that drinks out of a tumbler--in short,
he tried first one thing and then another to make her laugh. But all
was time lost, for nothing could bring a smile to her lips.

So at length the poor father, at wit's end, and to make a last trial,
ordered a large fountain of oil to be set in front of the palace gates,
thinking to himself that when the oil ran down the street, along which
the people passed like a troop of ants, they would be obliged, in order
not to soil their clothes, to skip like grasshoppers, leap like goats,
and run like hares; while one would go picking and choosing his way,
and another go creeping along the wall. In short, he hoped that
something might come to pass to make his daughter laugh.

So the fountain was made; and as Zoza was one day standing at the
window, grave and demure, and looking as sour as vinegar, there came by
chance an old woman, who, soaking up the oil with a sponge, began to
fill a little pitcher which she had brought with her. And as she was
labouring hard at this ingenious device, a young page of the court
passing by threw a stone so exactly to a hair that he hit the pitcher
and broke it to pieces. Whereupon the old woman, who had no hair on her
tongue, turned to the page, full of wrath, and exclaimed, "Ah, you
impertinent young dog, you mule, you gallows-rope, you spindle-legs!
Ill luck to you! May you be pierced by a Catalan lance! May a thousand
ills befall you and something more to boot, you thief, you knave!"

The lad, who had little beard and less discretion, hearing this string
of abuse, repaid the old woman in her own coin, saying, "Have you done,
you grandmother of witches, you old hag, you child-strangler!"

When the old woman heard these compliments she flew into such a rage
that, losing hold of the bridle and escaping from the stable of
patience, she acted as if she were mad, cutting capers in the air and
grinning like an ape. At this strange spectacle Zoza burst into such a
fit of laughter that she well-nigh fainted away. But when the old woman
saw herself played this trick, she flew into a passion, and turning a
fierce look on Zoza she exclaimed: "May you never have the least little
bit of a husband, unless you take the