Good Measure! [80]

By Michault De Changy.

_Of a young German girl, aged fifteen or sixteen or thereabouts who was
married to a gentle gallant, and who complained that her husband had too
small an organ for her liking, because she had seen a young ass of only
six months old which had a bigger instrument than her husband, who was
24 or 26 years old._

I have heard it related as true by two noble lords worthy of faith and
belief, that in the borders of Germany there lived a young girl, who at
the age of about 15 or 16 years was married to a worthy gentleman, who
did his best to satisfy the demands which, without saying a word, all
girls of that age and condition earnestly ask for. But though the
poor man did his duty well, and indeed more often than he should, the
performance was never agreeable to his wife, who was always sulky,
and often wept as sadly as though all her friends were dead. Her good
husband, seeing her thus lament, could not imagine what she could want,
and asked her tenderly;

"What is the matter, my dear? Are you not as well clothed, lodged, and
served, as people in our position of life can reasonably expect to be?"

"It is not that which vexes me," she replied.

"Then what can it be?" he asked. "Tell me, and if I can remedy it, I
will, at whatever cost to my purse or person."

Generally, she did not reply, but still sulked, and looked miserable, at
which her husband lost his patience, finding she would not tell him the
cause of her grief. But he enquired so often that at last he learned
partly what was the matter, for she told him that she was vexed because
he was so poorly furnished with you-know-what--that is to say the stick
with which you plant men, as Boccaccio calls it.

"Indeed!" said he, "and is that why you grieve? By St. Martin you have
good cause! At any rate it cannot be other than it is, and you must put
up with it, since you cannot change it."

This condition of affairs lasted a long time, till the husband, tired of
her obstinacy, one day invited to dinner a great number of her friends,
and stated the facts which have been already related, and said that
it seemed to him that she had no particular cause to grieve, for he
believed he was as well furnished with a natural instrument as any of
his neighbours.

"And that I may be the better believed," he said, "and that you may see
how wrong she is, I will show it you all."

With that he laid his furniture on the table before all the men and
women there assembled, and said; "There it is!" and his wife wept louder
than ever.

"By St. John!" said her mother, her sister, her aunt, her cousin, and
her neighbour, "you are wrong, my dear! What do you ask? Do you expect
more? Who would not be satisfied with a husband so furnished? So help me
God I should deem myself very happy to have as much, or indeed less. Be
comforted and enjoy yourself in future! By God, you are better off than
any of us I believe."

The young bride, hearing all the women thus speak, replied, still
weeping loudly.

"There is a little ass in the house, hardly half a year old, and who has
an instrument as big, as thick, and as long as your arm,"--and so saying
she held her arm by the elbow and shook it up and down--"and my husband,
who is quite 24 years old has but that little bit he has shown you. Do
you think I ought to be satisfied?" Everyone began to laugh, and she to
weep the more, so that for a long time not a word was said by any of
the company. Then her mother took the girl aside, and said one thing and
another to her, and left her satisfied after a great deal of trouble.

That is the way with the girls in Germany--if God pleases it will soon
be the same also in France.

*****

Next: Between Two Stools
Previous: The Lost Ass Found

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Good Measure! [80]