(Today’s story - for no reason - is to honour my good friend, Hans Sachs, a shoemaker who wrote over 6000 works before dying in 1576. And of course he’s a lead character in Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg”. I’ve always loved his plays, so this story is about as splendidly silly as Sachs could get!)
Valmai and Julian (wife and husband) liked to garden. There was limited room however in the vegetable garden. Valmai like beans and Julian liked peas. They had a big argument.
In the end, Valmai planted two rows of beans and Julian planted two rows of peas. Both would have preferred four rows of their chosen vegetable.
The beans and peas sprouted and were growing well. Suddenly Julian upped and died. Although distraught, it didn’t take Valmai long before she realized something. She raced out to the garden, pulled out the peas and planted two further rows of beans.
Upon returning to the house, Julian rose up. "I knew you would do that," he said. "That’s why I pretended to be dead."