Garden Life. 77 



off the chessboard, or tap one of the kings 

 on the crown with the bough in his hand. 



There is a mediaeval Latin fabliau of a 

 man who invited some friends to dinner, 

 and insisted on having the table spread at 

 the riverside, contrary to the wish of his 

 wife, who was not fond of being crossed. 

 She sat with her back to the stream, and the 

 more he begged her to look pleasant, the 

 nearer she pushed her seat to the water, till 

 at last she fell plump in. Her husband 

 thereupon procured a boat, and went up 

 against the tide in search of her ; and when 

 his friends remonstrated with him for rowing 

 up the stream, he said that his wife was so 

 opposite all her life that he was sure her 

 body must have floated against the current. 

 This story occurs in a mutilated form in 

 Merry Tales and Quick Answers, and again 

 in PasquiVs Jests. Its value to us lies in its 

 casual elucidation of old English al fresco 

 life. 



In the romance of Sir Cleges, the hero 

 kneels in prayer under a cherry-tree. 



