how I should grieve!" The mother, too, began to weep,
and weep, and weep; and meanwhile the wine was running over the cellar.

When the people at the table saw that no one brought the wine, the
groom's father said, "I will go and see what is the matter. Certainly
something wrong has happened to the bride." He went and saw the whole
cellar full of wine, and the mother and bride weeping. "What is the
matter?" he said; "has anything wrong happened to you?"

"No," said the bride; "but I was thinking that if I had a son, and
should call him Bastianelo, and he should die, oh, how I should grieve!
oh, how I should grieve!" Then he, too, began to weep, and all three
wept; and meanwhile the wine was running over the cellar.

When the groom saw that neither the bride, nor the mother, nor the
father came back, he said, "Now I will go and see what the matter is
that no one returns." He went into the cellar and saw all the wine
running over the cellar. He hastened and stopped the cask, and then
asked, "What is the matter that you are all weeping, and have let the
wine run all over the cellar?" Then the bride said, "I was thinking that
if I had a son and called him Bastianelo, and he should die, oh, how I
should grieve! oh, how I should grieve!" Then the groom said, "You
stupid fools! Are you weeping at this and letting all the wine run into
the cellar? Have you nothing else to think of? It shall never be said
that I remained with you. I will roam about the world, and until I find
three fools greater than you, I will not return home."

He had a bread-cake made, took a bottle of wine, a sausage, and some
linen, and made a bundle, which he put on a stick and carried over his
shoulder. He journeyed and journeyed, but found no fool. At last he
said, worn out, "I must turn back, for I see I cannot find a greater
fool than my wife." He did not know what to do, whether to go on or turn
back. "Oh," said he, "it is better to try and go a little farther." So
he went on, and shortly saw a man in his shirt-sleeves at a well, all
wet with perspiration, and water. "What are you doing, sir, that you are
so covered with water and in such a sweat?" "Oh, let me alone," the man
answered; "for I have been here a long time drawing water to fill this
pail, and I cannot fill it." "What are you drawing the water in?" he
asked him. "In this sieve," he said. "What are you thinking about, to
draw water in that sieve? Just wait!" He went to a house near by a