e you saw was the antlers of
a deer. We'll have to go home now, for we have nothing to eat."

Meanwhile the five crazy fellows who had been left at home were not
idle. Eulalio went to get a pail of water. When he reached the well
and saw his image in the water, he nodded, and the reflection nodded
back at him. He did this over and over again; until finally, becoming
tired, he jumped into the water, and was drowned. Jacinto was sent
to gather small sticks, but he only destroyed the fence around the
garden. Pedro cooked a chicken without removing the feathers. He also
let the chicken burn until it was as black as coal. Mateo and Francisco
tried to keep the flies off the face of their old mistress. They soon
became tired, because the flies kept coming back; so they took big
sticks to kill them with. When a fly lighted on the nose of the old
woman, they struck at it so hard that they killed her. She died with
seemingly a smile on her face. The two fools said to each other that
the old woman was very much pleased that they had killed the fly.

When the old man and his two companions reached home, the old man
asked Pedro if there was any food to eat. Pedro said that it was in the
pot. The old man looked in and saw the charred chicken and feathers. He
was very angry at the cook. Then he went in to see his wife, and
found her dead. He asked Mateo and Francisco what they had done to
the old woman. They said that they had only been killing flies that
tried to trouble her, and that she was very much pleased by their work.

The next thing the crazy fellows had to do was to make a coffin for
the dead woman; but they made it flat, and in such a way that there
was nothing to prevent the corpse from falling off. The old man told
them to carry the body to the church; but on their way they ran,
and the body rolled off the flat coffin. They said to each other that
running was a good thing, for it made their burden lighter.

When the priest found that the corpse was missing, he told the six
crazy fellows to go back and get the body. While they were walking
toward the house, they saw an old woman picking up sticks by the
roadside.

"Old woman, what are you doing here?" they said. "The priest wants
to see you."

While they were binding her, she cried out to her husband, "Ah! here
are some bad boys trying to take me to the church." But her husband
said that the crazy fellows were only trying to tease her. When they
reached the church w