If it
were not to be touched, why was it placed on the table?
Her husband at length grew very angry; she would neither eat herself nor
allow him to eat in peace. She at length remonstrated, she threatened;
she used various arguments to induce him to lift the cover; said no one
need to know it, &c. Still her good-natured husband tried to reason her
out of this notion. She now burst into tears, and said her life was
miserable by this gentleman's singular prohibition, which could do no
one any good; and she was still more wretched by reason of her husband's
unkindness,--she really believed that he had lost all affection for her.
This remark made her husband feel very badly. He lifted the cover and
out ran a little harmless mouse. They both ran after it, and tried their
best to catch it, but in vain.
While they were feeling very unhappy, and were trembling with fear, the
gentleman entered, and seeing their great embarrassment, inquired if
they had dared to lift the cover?
The woman replied that she did not see what harm there could be in doing
so. She did not think it kind to place such a temptation before them; it
could do no one any good.
The man added that his wife teazed him so that he had no peace, and
rather than see her unhappy he had lifted the cover.
The gentleman then reminded them of their fault-finding while in the
forest, their hard thoughts of God, of the serpent, and of Adam and Eve.
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