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and looked at him. "The unicorn is a mythical beast," she said, and
turned her back on him. The man walked slowly downstairs and out into
the garden. The unicorn was still there; he was now browsing among the
tulips. "Here, unicorn," said the man, and he pulled up a lily and gave it
to him. The unicorn ate it gravely. With a high heart, because there was a
unicorn in his garden, the man went upstairs and roused his wife again.
"The unicorn," he said, "ate a lily." His wife sat up in bed and looked at
him, coldly. "You are a booby
1
," she said, "and I am going to have you
put in the booby-hatch
2
." The man, who had never liked the words
"booby" and "booby-hatch," and who liked them even less on a shining
morning when there was a unicorn in the garden, thought for a moment.
"We'll see about that," he said. He walked over to the door. "He has a
golden horn in the middle of his forehead," he told her. Then he went
back to the garden to watch the unicorn; but the unicorn had gone away.
The man sat down among the roses and went to sleep.
As soon as the husband had gone out of the house, the wife got up
and dressed as fast as she could. She was very excited and there was a
gloat
3
in her eye. She telephoned the police and she telephoned a
psychiatrist; she told them to hurry to her house and bring a strait-jacket.
When the police and the psychiatrist arrived they sat down in chairs and
looked at her, with great interest. "My husband," she said, "saw a
unicorn this morning." The police looked at the psychiatrist and the
psychiatrist looked at the police. " He told me it ate a lily," she said. The
psychiatrist looked at the police and the police looked at the psychiatrist.
"He told me it had a golden horn in the middle of its forehead," she said.
At a solemn signal from the psychiatrist, the police leaped from their
chairs and seized the wife.
They had a hard time subduing her, for she put up a terrific
struggle, but they finally subdued her. Just as they got her into the strait-
jacket, the husband came back into the house.
"Did you tell your wife you saw a unicorn?" asked the police. "Of
course not," said the husband." The unicorn is a mythical beast." "That's
all I wanted to know," said the psychiatrist. "Take her away. I'm sorry,
sir, but your wife is as crazy as a jay bird
4
." So they took her away,
cursing and screaming, and shut her up in an institution. The husband
lived happily ever after.
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