nd
borrowed a bucket, with which he returned to the well and filled the
pail. "Thank you, good man. God knows how long I should have had to
remain here!"--"Here," thought he, "is one who is a greater fool than my
wife."

He continued his journey, and after a time he saw at a distance a man in
his shirt, who was jumping down from a tree. He drew near, and saw a
woman under the same tree, holding a pair of breeches. He asked them
what they were doing, and they said that they had been there a long
time, and that the man was trying on those breeches and did not know how
to get into them. "I have jumped and jumped," said the man, "until I am
tired out, and I cannot imagine how to get into those breeches." "Oh,"
said the traveller, "you might stay here as long as you wished, for you
would never get into them this way. Come down and lean against the
tree." Then he took his legs and put them in the breeches, and after he
had put them on, he said, "Is that right?" "Very good; bless you; for if
it had not been for you, God knows how long I should have had to jump."
Then the traveller said to himself, "I have seen two greater fools than
my wife."

Then he went his way, and as he approached a city, he heard a great
noise. When he drew near he asked what it was, and was told it was a
marriage, and that it was the custom in that city for the brides to
enter the city gate on horseback, and that there was a great discussion
on this occasion between the groom and the owner of the horse, for the
bride was tall and the horse high, and they could not get through the
gate; so that they must either cut off the bride's head or the horse's
legs. The groom did not wish his bride's head cut off, and the owner of
the horse did not wish his horse's legs cut off, and hence this
disturbance. Then the traveller said, "Just wait," and came up to the
bride and gave her a slap that made her lower her head, and then he gave
the horse a kick, and so they passed through the gate and entered the
city. The groom and the owner of the horse asked the traveller what he
wanted, for he had saved the groom his bride and the owner of the horse
his horse. He answered that he did not wish anything, and said to
himself, "Two and one make three! that is enough. Now I will go home."
He did so, and said to his wife, "Here I am, my wife; I have seen three
greater fools than you;--now let us remain in peace, and think of
nothing else." They renewed the wedding, and alway