“Why, neighbor, have you lost your mind?⁠—pulling down your ceiling in winter. You and your wife will freeze to death!”

But the man said:⁠—

“No, brother; you see I am pulling down my ceiling so as to have something to heat my oven with. We have such a curious one; the more I heat it up, the colder we are!”

The neighbor laughed, and said:⁠—

“Well, then, after you have burnt up your ceiling, then you will be tearing down your house. You won’t have anywhere to live; only the oven will be left, and even that will be cold!”

“Well, that is my misfortune,” said the man. “All my neighbors have firewood enough for all winter; but I have already burnt up my fences and the ceiling of my house, and have nothing left.”

The neighbor replied:⁠—