The James T. Callow Folklore Archive

Legend

There was a man that was so stingy he wouldn't get married because wives eat so much. One woman wanted a husband real bad, so she convinced him that she didn't eat. After they were married, she slipped out bits and pieces when he wasn't looking. But she was getting hungrier and hungrier.

One day the man had to go away for the day. The woman went to the food and found four hams. She was so hungry she ate one of them.

When the man came in, he went to look at his food. He was so shocked to find a ham missing that he fell dead.

The woman called the neighbors to bury her husband. They came and put him in a coffin. Then three of them started to carry him to the graveyard. On the way the man came to; he decided to make the best of his loss, so he spoke aloud, "I'll eat the three."

The three men thought it was the dead man speaking of them. They dropped the coffin and fled.