'Take this one,' she said to the slave, 'and carry it back to your mistress, but tell her to keep the corn, as the pumpkin is a gift.'
The brother's wife was overjoyed at the sight of the fruit, and when she tasted it, she declared it was the nicest she had ever eaten. Indeed, all night she thought of nothing else, and early in the morning she called another slave (for she was a rich woman) and bade him go and ask for another pumpkin. But the girl, who had just been out to look at her tree, told him that they were all eaten, so he went back empty-handed to his mistress.
In the evening her husband returned from hunting a long way off, and found his wife in tears.
'What is the matter?' asked he.
'I sent a slave with some grain to your sister to buy some pumpkins, but she would not sell me any, and told me there were none, though I know she lets other people buy them.'
'Well, never mind now—go to sleep,' said he, 'and to-morrow I will go and pull up the pumpkin tree, and that will punish her for treating you so badly.'
So before sunrise he got up and set out for his sister's house, and found her cleaning some corn.
'Why did you refuse to sell my wife a pumpkin yesterday when she wanted one?' he asked.
'The old ones are finished, and the new ones are not yet come,' answered the girl. 'When her slave arrived two days ago, there were only four left; but I gave him one, and would take no corn for it.'
'I do not believe you: you have sold them all to other people. I shall go and cut down the pumpkin,' cried her brother in a rage.