Years passed and
the man was still a good husband and lover. He kept up the habit which
he had learned from a sailor friend. Every night, when far from home
and out on the sea, he and his mates used to drink this toast;
"Sweethearts and wives: may every sweetheart become a wife and every
wife remain a sweetheart, and every husband continue a lover."
So he proved that though a husband he was still a lover, by always
doing what she asked him and more. When the children were born and
grew up, their father told them about their mother's likes and
dislikes, her tastes and her wishes, and warned them always to be
careful. So it was altogether a very happy family.
One day, the wife and mother said to her husband, that she had a great
longing for apples. She would like to taste some like those which he
long ago gave her. At once, the good man dropped what he was doing and
hurried off to his neighbor, who had first presented him with a
trayful of these apples.
The farmer not only got the fruit, but he also determined that he
would plant a tree and thus have apples for his wife, whenever she
wanted them.
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