Sometimes it happened that the king came to see them, and he
smiled as he glanced at the man, who was getting rosier and
plumper each day. But when his eyes rested on the woman, they
took on a look which seemed to say 'I knew it,' though this
neither the charcoal-burner nor his wife ever noticed.

'Why are you so silent?' asked the man one morning when dinner
had passed before his wife had uttered one word. 'A little while
ago you used to be chattering all the day long, and now I have
almost forgotten the sound of your voice.'

'Oh, nothing; I did not feel inclined to talk, that was all!' She
stopped, and added carelessly after a pause, 'Don't you ever
wonder what is in that soup-tureen?'

'No, never,' replied the man. 'It is no affair of ours,' and the
conversation dropped once more, but as time went on, the woman
spoke less and less, and seemed so wretched that her husband grew
quite frightened about her. As to her food, she refused one thing
after another.

'My dear wife,' said the man at last, 'you really must eat
something. What in the world is the matter with you? If you go on
like this you will die.'

'I would rather die than not know what is in that tureen,' she
burst forth so violently that the husband was quite startled.

'Is that it?' cried he; 'are you making yourself miserable
because of that? Why, you know we should be turned out of the