e ant, and
she took him for her husband.

Sunday came, and while the ant was with her friends, the mouse said: "My
dear little ant, I am going to see whether the meat that you have put on
the fire is done." He went, and when he smelled the odor of the meat, he
wanted to take a little; he put in one paw and burned it; he put in the
other, and burned that too; he stuck in his nose, and the smoke drew him
into the pot, and the poor little mouse was all burned. The ant waited
for him to eat. She waited two, she waited three hours, the mouse did
not come. When she could wait no longer, she put the dinner on the
table. But when she took out the meat, out came the mouse dead. When she
saw him the ant began to weep, and all her friends; and the ant remained
a widow, because he who is a mouse must be a glutton. If you don't
believe it, go to her house and you will see her.

[17] Other Italian versions are: Pitre, No. 136, "_Li Vecchi_" ("The Old
Folks"); and _Nov. fior._ p. 567, "The Story of Signor Donato."

[18] There are two versions of this story in Pitre, No. 139, and notes.
They differ but little from the one we have translated. An Istrian
version is in Ive, _Fiabe pop. rovignesi_, 1878, No. 4, "_I tri fardai_"
and a Corsican one in Ortoli, p. 278.

[19] Other Italian versions are: Coronedi-Berti, p. 49, "_La Fola d'
Zanninein_;" and Bernoni, _Trad. pop._ p. 79, "_Rosseto_."

[20] There is another Italian version in _Fiabe Mantovane_, No. 31, "The
Wolf." The only parallel I can find to this story out of Italy is a
negro story in _Lippincott's Magazine_, December, 1877, "Folk-Lore of
the Southern Negroes," p. 753, "Tiny Pig." Allusion is made to the
Anglo-Saxon story of the "Three Blue Pigs," but I have been unable to
find it.

[21] A Sicilian version is in Pitre, No. 278, "_L'Acidduzzu_" ("Little
Bird"), and one from Tuscany in Nerucci, _Cincelle da Bambini_, No. 12.

[22] Koehler, in his notes to this story, gives parallels from various
parts of Europe. To these may be added Asbjornsen and Moe, Nos. 42, 102
[Dasent, _Tales from the Fjeld_, p. 35, "The Greedy Cat"]. Comp.
Halliwell, p. 29, "The story of Chicken-licken." A French version is in
the _Romania_, No. 32, p. 554 (Cosquin, No. 45), where copious
references to this class of stories may be found. Add to these those by
Koehler in _Zeitschrift fuer rom. Phil._ III. p. 617.

CHAPTER VI.

STORIES AND JESTS.

[1] A well-known literary version of this story