It happened one Sunday that the king sat in his highseat at the dinner
table, and had fallen into such deep thought that he did not observe
how time went. In one hand he had a knife, and in the other a piece
of fir-wood from which he cut splinters from time to time. The
table-servant stood before him with a bowl in his hands; and seeing what
the king was about, and that he was involved in thought, he said, "It is
Monday, sire, to-morrow." The king looked at him when he heard this,
and then it came into his mind what he was doing on the Sunday. Then the
king ordered a lighted candle to be brought him, swept together all the
shavings he had made, set them on fire, and let them burn upon his
naked hand; showing thereby that he would hold fast by God's law and
commandment, and not trespass without punishment on what he knew to be
right.