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Page 22
CHAPTER XVI.
I woll tell you an ensaumple of a woman that ete the
good morsell in the absence of her husbonde.
Ther was a woman that had a pie in a cage, that spake
and
wolde tell tales that she saw do. And so it happed
that
her husbonde made kepe a gret eel in a litll ponde in
his garden,
to that entent to yeve hit sum of his frendes that
wolde come to
see him; but the wiff, whane her husbond was oute,
saide to
her maide, "Late us ete the gret eel, and I will saye
to my husbond
that the otour hath eten him;" and so it was done. And
whan
the good man was come, the pie began to tell him how
her
maistresse had eten the ele. And he yode to the ponde,
and
fonde not the eel. And he asked his wiff wher the eel
was become.
And she wende to have excused her, but he saide her
"Excuse you not, for well ye have eten it, for the pie
hathe told me." And so ther was gret noise betwene the
man and
his wiff for etinge of the eel. But whann the good man
was
gone, the maistresse and the maide come to the pie,
and plucked
off all the fedres on the pies hede, saying, "thou
hast discovered
us of the eel;" and thus was the pore pie plucked. But
ever after,
whanne the pie saw a balled or pilled man, or a woman
with
an high forhede, the pie saide to hem, "ye spake of
the eel."
And therfor here us an ensaumple that no woman shulde
ete no
licorous morcelles in the absens and withoute witting
of her
husbond, but if it were so that it be with folk of
worshippe, to
make hem chere; for this woman was afterward mocked
for the
pie and the eel.
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magpie
otter
went
feathers
bad or hairless
knowledge
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