VALERIUS tells us, that a man named Paletinus one day burst into tears; and calling his son and his neighbours around him, said, "Alas! alas! I have now growing in my garden a fatal tree, on which my first poor wife hung herself, then my second, and after that my third. Have I not therefore cause for wretchedness?" "Truly," said one who was called Arrius, "I marvel that you should weep at such unusual good fortune! Give me, I pray you, two or three sprigs of that gentle tree, which I will divide with my neighbours, and thereby enable every man to indulge his spouse." Paletinus complied with his friend's request; and ever after found this tree the most productive part of his estate.
