ons together, and, taking his wife and family,
he set out resolved to go and live in that country where the people did
not die, but where instead they heard a voice calling them, which they
followed into a land from which they never returned. For he had made
up his own mind that when he or any of his family heard that voice they
would pay no heed to it, however loudly it called.

After he had settled down in his new home, and had got everything in
order about him, he warned his wife and family that, unless they wanted
to die, they must on no account listen to a voice which they might some
day hear calling them.

For some years everything went well with them, and they lived happily in
their new home. But one day, while they were all sit-ting together round
the table, his wife suddenly started up, exclaiming in a loud voice:

'I am coming! I am coming!'

And she began to look round the room for her fur coat, but her husband
jumped up, and taking firm hold of her by the hand, held her fast, and
reproached her, saying:

'Don't you remember what I told you? Stay where you are unless you wish
to die.'

'But don't you hear that voice calling me?' she answered. 'I am merely
going to see why I am wanted. I shall come back directly.'

So she fought and struggled to get away from her husband, and to go
where the voice summoned. But he would not let her go, and had all the
doors of the house shut and bolted. When she saw that he had done this,
she said:

'Very well, dear husband, I shall do what you wish, and remain where I
am.'

So her husband believed that it was all right, and that she had thought
better of it, and had got over her mad impulse to obey the voice. But a
few minutes later she made a sudden dash for one of the doors, opened it
and darted out, followed by her husband. He caught her by the fur
coat, and begged and implored her not to go, for if she did she
would certainly never return. She said nothing, but let her arms fall
backwards, and suddenly bending herself forward, she slipped out of the
coat, leaving it in her husband's hands. He, poor man, seemed turned to
stone as he gazed after her hurrying away from him, and calling at the
top of her voice, as she ran:

'I am coming! I am coming!'

When she was quite out of sight her husband recovered his wits and went
back into his house, murmuring:

'If she is so foolish as to wish to die, I can't help it. I warned
and implored her to pay no heed to that