I think, if I had been in Adam's place, before I would have
listened to her foolish advice, and run such a hazard, I would have
given her a smart box on the ear, and told her to hold her tongue, and
to mind her own business."
This remark made his wife very angry, and here followed a long dialogue
on this topic till they began mutually to criminate each other as well
as the serpent.
Now, a gentleman, who had all this time been concealed behind the trees,
and had heard their complaints, and listened with grief to their
fault-finding disposition, came forward and spoke to them very kindly.
He said, "My friends, you seem to be hard at work, and very unhappy.
Pray tell me the cause of your misery, and whether I can do anything to
comfort you?"
So they repeated to this gentleman what they had been saying.
He replied to them thus: "Now, my dear friends, I am truly sorry for
you, and I desire to make you more comfortable. I have a large estate,
and I wish to make others as happy as I am myself. I have a fine house,
plenty of servants, and every thing desirable to eat and to drink. I
have fine grounds, filled with shrubbery and fruit trees. If you will go
and live with me you have only to obey the regulations of my house, and
as long as you do this and are contented, you shall be made welcome."
So they went with this gentleman. At once he took off their rough and
ragged garments, and clad them in a fine suit of clothes, suited to the
place, and put them into a spacious apartment, where for a time they
lived very happily.
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