"Nothing," the farmer said.
"You're laughing at me!" the wife declared, "I know you are, just because I'm so big that I'm awkward in the saddle!"
"No, my dear, I'm not laughing at you, truly I'm not."
"You are! I know you are and I don't think it's kind of you, either!" And the wife burst into tears.
"Now, my dear," the husband said, soothingly, "be sensible and believe me when I tell you I was not laughing at you."
"Then what were you laughing at?"
"I can't tell you because if I did tell you then I should die the next moment."
"Die the next moment!" the wife said. "Stuff and nonsense! It must be a strange thing indeed if a man can't tell his own wife for fear he'll die the next moment!"
The more she thought about it the more enraged she became and also the more curious.
"If you really loved me, you'd tell me!" she wept.