But when he meanwhile reckoned up on his fingers all the
disasters he had met with, and thought to himself that, from the
number of fooleries he had committed, he must have lost the game
in the good graces of Grannonia, he resolved in his heart not to let
his mother see him again alive. So thrusting his hand into the jar of
pickled walnuts which his mother had said contained poison, he
never stopped eating until he came to the bottom; and when he had
right well filled his stomach he went and hid himself in the oven.

In the meanwhile his mother returned, and stood knocking for a
long time at the door; but at last, seeing that no one came, she gave
it a kick; and going in, she called her son at the top of her voice.
But as nobody answered, she imagined that some mischief must
have happened, and with increased lamentation she went on crying
louder and louder, "Vardiello! Vardiello! are you deaf, that you
don't hear? Have you the cramp, that you don't run? Have you the
pip, that you don't answer? Where are you, you rogue? Where are
you hidden, you naughty fellow?"

Vardiello, on hearing all this hubbub and abuse, cried out at last
with a piteous voice, "Here I am! here I am in the oven; but you
will never see me again, mother!"

"Why so?" said the poor mother.

"Because I am poisoned," replied the son.

"Alas! alas!" cried Grannonia, "how came you to do that? What
cause have you had to commit this homicide? And who has given