‘If you want rice go and get it. No one will notice your dirty boots; and you don’t suppose that I am going to carry rice for all our kindred?’
Then the king laughed.
The queen looked at herself up and down, but she could not see or feel anything in her appearance to make the king laugh, so she said:
‘What are you laughing at?’
‘Did I laugh?’ replied the king.
‘Of course you did,’ retorted the queen; ‘and if you think that I am ridiculous I wish you would say so, instead of behaving in that stupid way! What are you laughing at?’
‘I’m not laughing at anything,’ answered the king.
‘Very well, but you did laugh, and I want to know why.’
‘Well, I’m afraid I can’t tell you,’ said the king.
‘You must tell me,’ replied the queen impatiently. ‘If you laugh when there’s nothing to laugh at you must be ill or mad. What is the matter?’