When I came home from my journey, I saw my wife out in the garden with another man. I was about to shoot him with my bow and arrow when I remembered something an old man had said to me when we were drawing water from a well: “Patience is the first step on the road to happiness.”

My wife kissed the man’s cheek, and my heart filled with a blind rage, but then I remembered something else the old man had said: “He wins who waits.”

“Mother,” said the young man, “Can you tell me nothing about my father?”

Returning Husband in He Wins Who Waits, Olive Fairy Book. Illustration by H.J. Ford.