STORY THE FIFTIETH — TIT FOR TAT. [50]
By Anthoine De La Sale.
Of a father who tried to kill his son because the young man wanted to lie with his grandmother, and the reply made by the said son.
Young men like to travel and to seek after adventures; and thus it was with the son of a labourer, of Lannoys, who from the age of ten until he was twenty-six, was away from home; and from his departure until his return, his father and mother heard no news of him, so they often thought that he was dead.
He returned at last, and God knows what joy there was in the house, and how he was feasted to the best of such poor means as God had given them.
But the one who most rejoiced to see him was his grandmother, his father’s mother. She was most joyful at his return, and kissed him more than fifty times, and ceased not to praise God for having restored her grandson in good health.
After the feasting was over, bed-time came. There were in the cottage but two beds—the one for the father and mother, and the other for the grandmother. So it was arranged that the son should sleep with his grandmother, at which she was very glad, but he grumbled, and only complied to oblige his parents, and as a makeshift for one night.
When he was in bed with his grandmother, it happened, I know not how, that he began to get on the top of her.
“What are you doing?” she cried.