Wise Matthew and the Fools

Once upon a time, a young lad named Matthew set out to look for a bride. As he was roaming the world, he strayed off to a picturesque village where he went to a dance and met a beautiful girl. It was right the very next day when he called upon her father for her hand in marriage. Her father was a farmer. Having greeted Matthew warmly, he sat him down in the kitchen and poured him some water.

“Won’t you go and fetch us a bite to eat from the pantry, my dear?” the farmer asked his wife.

After she left, several long minutes had passed and she still hadn’t come back.

“Why don’t you go check what’s taking your mother so long?” the farmer asked his daughter.

The girl went to the pantry and closed the door behind her. Time passed and she also disappeared.

“What on earth is keeping them there that means we have to wait for so long?” the father asked, annoyed. He couldn’t wait anymore so he went to check on them.

Matthew waited in the kitchen, sitting at the table. The cuckoo clock kept calling out the passing hours, but no one had come back yet. The waiting was unbearable so Matthew decided he’d better go and see that nothing bad had happened. When he opened the door to the pantry, however, he found all three of them sitting on the floor, hugging each other and sobbing.

“My goodness!” Matthew said. “What happened?”

But the three were crying so loudly they didn’t even notice that Matthew was in the pantry. His words failed him, but after a moment the mother raised her head and said, “Look, Matthew, over there! There’s an axe hacked into the beam just above your head. When…