With that Jenny jumped up and before her husband could stop her she lifted the forbidden cover. Instantly a little white mouse hopped out of the silver dish and scurried away.
“Oh!” Jenny screamed, dropping the cover with a great clatter.
The King who was in an adjoining chamber heard the noise and came in.
“So!” he said, “you have done the one thing that I told you not to do! You haven’t been here three days and although you’ve had everything that heart could wish for yet you couldn’t obey me in this one little matter!”
“Your Majesty,” the man said, “it was my wife who did it, not I.”
“No matter,” the King said, “you, too, are to blame. If you had restrained her it wouldn’t have happened.”
Then he called his servants and had them strip off the fine clothes and dress the couple again in their old rags.
“Now,” he said as he drove them from the castle gates, “never again blame Adam and Eve for the misfortunes which you bring upon yourselves!”