“THE OTHERS, MAKING VERY MERRY, BADE A BARBER DRAW THE TOOTH.”
All parties pleased, the countryman, very much to his taste, began whetting his teeth upon the tarts. When his hunger was satisfied he stopped, saying, “Gentlemen, I have lost.” The others, making very merry, indulged in much laughter, bade a barber draw the tooth—though at this our friend feigned great grief—and the more to jeer at him cried out to the bystanders—
“Did you ever see such a fool of a clown as to lose an ivory to satiate himself with tarts?”
“Yours is the greater folly,” retorted he; “you have satisfied my hunger and drawn a grinder which has been aching all the morning.”
The crowd burst out laughing at the trick the rustic had played upon the lackeys, who, paying the pastrycook and barber, turned their backs and went away.
THE CONTRARY WIFE.
A tambourinist had so contrary a wife, he never could get her to do anything he asked. One day, on their way to a wedding, at which he was to play, she was riding an ass and carrying his tambourine, and he cried out, as they were fording a river, “Woman, don’t play the tambourine, for you’ll frighten the ass.” No sooner said than she began thrumming; the ass, shying, lost its footing, and threw our dame into the river; while the husband, however much he wished to help her, could do no good. Seeing she was drowned, he went up-stream in search of her body.
“My good fellow,” said a looker-on, “what are you seeking?”
“My wife,” replied he, “who is drowned.”
“And you are looking for her up-stream, friend?”