arious saints in heaven and amongst others to St. Michael,
he bethought him that he would make one to the figure that is under the
feet of the said St. Michael.

With that he commanded one of his servants to light and bring a large
wax candle, and offer it on his behalf. Soon it was reported to him that
his orders had been obeyed.

"Thus," said he to himself, "I shall see if God or the devil can cure
me," and in his usual ill-temper he went to bed with his good and honest
wife, and perhaps because he had so many fancies and whims in his head
that nature was restrained, she lay in peace.

In fact he slept soundly, and when he was in the depth of his sleep,
he to whom the candle had that day been offered, appeared unto him in
a vision, and thanked him for his offering, declaring that such a
sacrifice had never before been made to him. Moreover, he told the man
that he had not lost his labour, and should obtain his request, and
whilst the other lay still in deep sleep, it seemed to him that a ring
was placed on his finger, and he was told that whilst that ring was on
his finger he should never be jealous or have any cause for jealousy.

After the vision had vanished, our jealous hunks awoke, and expected to
find on his finger the said ring, and found that one of his fingers
was in the backside of his wife, at which both he and she were much
astonished.

But of the rest of the life of this jealous fool, and of his business
and condition, this story is silent.

*****

[Illustration: 12.jpg Story the Twelfth -- THE CALF.]

STORY THE TWELFTH -- THE CALF. [12]

By Monseigneur de la Roche

_Of a Dutchman, who at all hours of the day and night ceased not to
dally with his wife in love sports; and how it chanced that he laid her
down, as they went through a wood, under a great tree in which was a
labourer who had lost his calf. And as he was enumerating the charms of
his wife, and naming all the pretty things he could see, the labourer
asked him if he could not see the calf he sought, to which the Dutchman
replied that he thought he could see a tail._

In the borders of Holland there formerly lived a foolish fellow, who
determined to do the worst thing he could--that is, get married. And so
entranced was he with the joys of wedlock, that although it was winter,
he was so heated that the night--which at that season was nine or ten
hours--was not sufficiently long to enable him to appease the ardent
desires