I didn’t tell my young bride where I kept my heart. I lied to her. I said that I kept it under the bed cloth. Later I found her embroidering flowers on the quilt. How quaint. I said, “No, my dear, it’s not under the bed cloth. It’s in the–”

“Where, dear husband?”

“It is in the doorway,” I said.

The next thing I knew, she had decorated the door with feathers and fresh flowers, and she’d hung garlands on it.

“Why did you do this?” I asked.

‘I did it to show my love for your heart,’ she said.

Honestly, if I had a heart, I would be moved.

Old Man Without a Heart, in The Man without a Heart, Pink Fairy Book. Illustration by H.J. Ford.