and he suffered his wife to take him upstairs, and to help
him off with his clothes.

'If you sleep well during the night there _may_ be a chance for you,'
said she, shaking her head, as she tucked him up warmly; 'but if
not----' And of course the poor man never closed an eye till the sun
rose.

'How do you feel this morning?' asked the woman, coming in on tip-toe
when her house-work was finished.

'Oh, bad; very bad indeed,' answered he; 'I have not slept for a
moment. Can you think of nothing to make me better?'

'I will try everything that is possible,' said the wife, who did not
in the least wish her husband to die, but was determined to show that
he was more foolish than the other man. 'I will get some dried herbs
and make you a drink, but I am very much afraid that it is too late.
Why did you not tell me before?'

'I thought perhaps the pain would go off in a day or two; and,
besides, I did not want to make you unhappy,' answered the man, who
was by this time quite sure he had been suffering tortures, and had
borne them like a hero. 'Of course, if I had had any idea how ill I
really was, I should have spoken at once.'

'Well, well, I will see what can be done,' said the wife, 'but talking
is not good for you. Lie still, and keep yourself warm.'

All that day the man lay in bed, and whenever his wife entered the
room and asked him, with a shake of the head, how he felt, he always
replied that he was getting worse. At last, in the evening, she burst
into tears, and when he inquired what was the matter, she sobbed out:

'Oh, my poor, poor husband, are you really dead? I must go to-morrow
and order your coffin.'

Now, when the man heard this, a cold shiver ran through his body, and
all at once he knew that he was as well as he had ever been in his
life.

'Oh, no, no!' he cried, 'I feel quite recovered! Indeed, I think I
shall go out to work.'

'You will do no such thing,' replied his wife. 'Just keep quite quiet,
for before the sun rises you will be a dead man.'

The man was very frightened at her words, and lay absolutely still
while the undertaker came and measured him for his coffin; and his
wife gave orders to the gravedigger about his grave. That evening the
coffin was sent home, and in the morning at nine o'clock the woman
put him on a long flannel garment, and called to the undertaker's men
to fasten down the lid and carry him to the grave, where all their
friends were waiting them. Just as the