The woman and her husband were preparing to go to sleep in the darkness of night. In a soft voice, the woman said to her husband, “All the women I know love the nighttime. But I can’t stand the night. Can you guess why?”
“Because at night you like to lie on your stomach,” he answered without hesitation, “and I make you lie on your back.”
She then lay on her stomach and said in a trembling voice, “Why don’t you try to convince me of the beauties of the night, for I am a woman who doesn’t hold extreme views and am willing to listen to opinions supported by arguments and proofs.”
In a broken, gasping voice he spoke to her of the night. Outside cold winds were blowing, and the wife clung to her husband more closely. She said the wood in the heater had burned itself out and more was needed. He did not rush to bring wood but carried on as if the man were the wood and the woman the heater.