The Six Sillies

Once upon a time, there was a farmer and his wife who had one daughter. She was known far and wide, not for her beauty, but because she often did not think things through very clearly. At last, a gentleman came to court her, and her parents were so filled with joy that they sent her down into the cellar to draw a jug of sweet cider for their guest.

Down she went with a great stone jug. But as she sat watching the cider trickle into the jug, she looked up at the ceiling beam and saw an old, rusty axe sticking there. It had been left there so long that it was covered in rust. suddenly, she began to cry.

"Oh dear!" she sobbed. "Suppose I were married to this gentleman, and we had a son, and he grew up to be a man, and he came down into the cellar to draw cider, and that axe fell on his head! How dreadful that would be!"

Her mother came down to see what was taking so long. When she heard the story, she sat down and cried too. Then the farmer came down, heard the worry, and he began to howl with grief. Finally, the gentleman himself came down to find the three of them sobbing on the wet floor while the cider overflowed and ran all over their feet.