“What! No guests on Christmas! Indeed and you’re wrong if you think we’re not going to have a houseful of guests!”
The farmer was overjoyed but, still pretending to grumble, he said:
“If you have the house full of people, you needn’t think I’m going to sit at the head of the table, for I’m not!”
“You are, too!” screamed his wife. “That’s exactly where you are going to sit!”
“Maya, Maya, don’t get so excited! I will sit there if you insist. But if I do you mustn’t expect me to pour the wine.”
“And why not? It would be a strange thing if you didn’t pour the wine at your own table!”
“All right, all right, I’ll pour it! But you mustn’t expect me to taste it beforehand.”
“Of course you’re going to taste it beforehand!”
This was exactly what the farmer wanted his wife to say. So you see by pretending to oppose her at every turn he was able to have the big Christmas party that he wanted and he was able to feast to his heart’s content with all his friends and relatives and neighbors.
Time went by and Maya grew more and more contrary if such a thing were possible. Summer came and the haymaking season. They were going to a distant meadow to toss hay and had to cross an angry little river on a footbridge made of one slender plank.