as happened to your father's
house?" The naughty little wife replied, all in tears, "As it came,
so it went. But if you promise to forgive me, I shall tell you." The
husband promised. So she told him how every Monday she had felt so
hungry and how she had cooked her breakfast, and then, on hearing her
husband's voice, had pushed it under their bed. She also told him that
the god Shiva had turned the food into gold and jewels. "Then when you
asked me," she went on, "I felt so frightened that I said they were
presents from my father and mother and the rest of my family. And
when you made me take you to my father's house, I prayed the god
Shiva to create, if only for half an hour, a house for my father on
the sandy island in the dry river-bed. And he graciously granted my
request." Then the husband forgave the naughty little wife. And she
became quite good and never told him any more stories. And they both
went home and lived happily ever afterwards.

CHAPTER IX

Nagoba, the Snake-King

Once upon a time there was a town called Atpat. In it there lived
a Brahman who had seven little daughters-in-law. In the fulness of
time the month of Shravan came and with it Nagpanchmi Day [12]. In
honour of the festival, one little daughter-in-law went to her
grandpapa's house, another went to her great grandpapa's house,
another went to her father's house, until at last only the youngest
daughter-in-law remained behind. Her father and mother were dead,
and she had no uncles and no aunts and no little brothers or
sisters. So the poor little daughter-in-law felt very sad and
sat down and cried in a corner. Then she remembered that it was
Nagpanchmi Day, and that it was a festival in honour of Nagoba, the
great snake-king. So she prayed under her breath, "Please, please,
snake-king, come and pretend that you have been sent to fetch me
to my father's house!" And the great snake-king heard the prayer
and felt quite sorry for the poor little daughter-in-law who was
crying in the corner. He assumed the guise of a Brahman and came to
the house where the little daughter-in-law was, and said that he had
been sent to fetch her to her father's house. Her father-in-law was
very much astonished. For he wondered why, if the new-comer really
was a relative of the little daughter-in-law, he had never paid him
a visit before. At last he asked the little daughter-in-law who the
new-comer was. She did not know in the least. But she was so overjoyed