The master answered : ` Do as I bid you ' ; and made ready to return home with his wife , and they mounted their horses , her steed being a mare . As they went on their way , it happened that the husband rode on ahead , while the wife was a little way behind . The husband 's horse , seeing this , neighed , and said to the mare : ` Come along , make haste ; why are you so slow ? ' And the mare answered : ` It is very easy for you , you carry only your master , who is a thin man , but I carry my mistress , who is so fat that she weights as much as three . ' When the husband heard that he looked back and laughed , which the wife perceiving , she urged on the mare till she caught up with her husband , and asked him why he laughed . ` For nothing at all , ' he answered ; ` just because it came into my head . ' She would not be satisfied with this answer , and urged him more and more to tell her why he had laughed . But he controlled himself and said : ` Let me be , wife ; what ails you ? I do not know myself why I laughed . ' But the more he put her off , the more she tormented him to tell her the cause of his laughter . At length he said to her : ` Know , then , that if I tell it you I shall immediately and surely die . ' But even this did not quiet her ; she only besought him the more to tell her . Meanwhile they had reached home , and before getting down from his horse the man called for a coffin to be brought ; and when it was there he placed it in front of the house , and said to his wife : ` See , I will lay myself down in this coffin , and will then tell you why I laughed , for as soon as I have told you I shall surely die . ' So he lay down in the coffin , and while he took a last look around him , his old dog came out from the farm and sat down by him , and whined . When the master saw this , he called to his wife : ` Bring a piece of bread to give to the dog . ' The wife brought some bread and threw it to the dog , but he would not look at it . Then the farm cock came and pecked at the bread ; but the dog said to it : ` Wretched glutton , you can eat like that when you see that your master is dying ? ' The cock answered : ` Let him die , if he is so stupid . I have a hundred wives , which I call together when I find a grain of corn , and as soon as they are there I swallow it myself ; should one of them dare to be angry , I would give her a lesson with my beak . He has only one wife , and he can not keep her in order . '
As soon as the man understood this , he got up out of the coffin , seized a stick , and XXXXX his wife into the room , saying : ` Come , and I will tell you what you so much want to know ' ; and then he began to beat her with the stick , saying with each blow : ` It is that , wife , it is that ! '
Bring asked brought called came die heard laughed said saw