THE COCK AND THE FOX\n\nA Fox went prowling about a farmyard, not seeing a trap which the farmer had hidden there to catch him. Snap! went the trap, and the Fox found himself held fast by a strong cord. He howled horribly and was almost beside himself with rage.\n\nA Cock, hearing the noise, flew to the top of the fence. Looking over, he saw the Fox and was terribly frightened—not daring to go near him, even when he found that his old enemy could not move. But he could not refrain from giving an exulting crow.\n\nThe Fox, looking up, said: "Dear Mr. Cock, you see how unlucky I have been, and all because I came here to inquire after your health. Do please help me to break this string, or at least do not let any one know that I am caught until I have time to gnaw it with my teeth."\n\nThe Cock said nothing, but went as fast as he could and told his master all about it. So the crafty Fox was served as the Cock thought he deserved to be.
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1 THE COCK AND THE FOX
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THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER\n\nA cavalry officer took the greatest of pains with his charger. As long as the war lasted, the Horse was looked upon as a companion and fellow helper. He was carefully groomed every day, and fed with hay and oats.\n\nBut when the war was over, the allowance of grain and hay ceased, and the Horse was fed with chaff and whatever he might find by the wayside. He was made a drudge too, and was often forced to carry loads much too heavy for his strength.\n\nWhen, in course of time, war was again proclaimed, the soldier brought his military trappings and put them on his charger; and, after having arrayed his own person with his heavy coat of mail, he mounted to ride to battle.\n\nBut the Horse, no longer equal to the burden, fell down straightway under the weight.\n\n"You must go to the war on foot," he said to his master, "for you have transformed me from a horse into an ass."\n\nHe who slights his friends when he does not need their best offices must not expect them to serve him when he needs them again.
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2 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER
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THE FOX AND THE STORK\n\nThe Fox and the Stork were on what seemed to be friendly terms. The Fox invited the Stork to a dinner for which nothing was provided but a soup, which was served on a wide, shallow dish.\n\nThe Fox presided at the feast with great dignity, and, as if to set his friend an example, proceeded to lap the soup. This _he_ could do with the greatest ease; but the Stork, who could only dip the tip of his bill in the dish and get the tempting odor, fared badly. He praised the dinner, but soon took leave, saying to his friend that he should do himself the honor to return the compliment.\n\nThis he did in a few days, but ordered that nothing be brought to the table but some minced meat in a glass jar, the neck of which was so narrow and deep that, though he himself could eat very well, the Fox could not reach it, and so could only lick the brim for the bits that clung to it.\n\nThe Fox could not conceal his vexation, but was obliged to own that he had been rightly used.\n\nThey who practice cunning must expect to suffer by it, and he laughs best who laughs last.
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3 THE FOX AND THE STORK
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THE DOG, THE COCK, AND THE FOX\n\nA Dog and a Cock, who were neighbors, once made a little journey together.\n\nWhen night came on, the Cock flew up into the branches of a tree to sleep; and the Dog found a hollow in the trunk, into which he could creep and lie down. They slept well, and as soon as the morning dawned, the Cock, as usual, began to crow.\n\nA Fox, hearing the sound and thinking he was sure of a good breakfast, came and stood under the branches. "Good morning," said he to the Cock.\n\n"How glad I am to make the acquaintance of the owner of such a voice! Will you not come down here where we can chat a little?"\n\n"Thank you, I cannot just yet," replied the Cock; "but if you would like to come up here, go around the tree trunk, and wake my servant. He will open the door and let you in."\n\nThe Fox did as he was requested; but as he approached the tree, the Dog sprang upon him, and tore him to pieces.\n\n"Two can play at the same game," said the Cock, as he looked down upon the scene.
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4 THE DOG, THE COCK, AND THE FOX
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THE FLY AND THE MOTH\n\nA Fly alighted one night upon a pot of honey, and finding it very much to his taste, began to eat it along the edges.\n\nLittle by little, however, he had soon crept away from the edge and into the jar, until at last he found himself stuck fast. His legs and wings had become so smeared with the honey that he could not use them.\n\nJust then a Moth flew by, and seeing him struggling there, said: "Oh, you foolish Fly! Were you so greedy as to be caught like that? Your appetite was too much for you."\n\nThe poor Fly had nothing to say in reply. What the Moth said was true. But by and by, when evening came, he saw the Moth flying round a lighted candle in the giddiest way, and each time a little closer to the flame, until at last he flew straight into it and was burned.\n\n"What!" said the Fly, "are you foolish, too? You found fault with me for being too fond of honey; yet all your wisdom did not keep you from playing with fire." It is sometimes easier to see the foolishness of others than to detect our own.
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5 THE FLY AND THE MOTH
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THE BOY BATHING\n\nA little Boy once went in bathing where the water was too deep for him. When he found himself sinking, he cried out to a Man who was passing by, to come and help him.\n\n"Can't you swim?" asked the Man.\n\n"No," replied the Boy, "I don't know how."\n\n"How foolish you were, then," said the Man, "to go into deep water! Didn't you know better?"\n\n"Oh, good sir, please help me now, or I shall drown!" cried the Boy. "You can scold me when I am safe on shore again."
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6 THE BOY BATHING
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THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE\n\nA Hare one day made himself merry over the slow pace of the Tortoise, vainly boasting of his own great speed in running.\n\nThe Tortoise took the laughing and boasting in good part. "Let us try a race," she said; "I will run with you five miles for five dollars, and the Fox out yonder shall be the judge."\n\nThe Hare agreed, a course was arranged, and away they started together. True to his boasting the Hare was out of sight in a moment.\n\nThe Tortoise never for a moment stopped, but jogged along with a slow, steady pace, straight to the end of the course. Full of sport, the Hare first outran the Tortoise, then fell behind. Having come midway to the goal, he began to nibble at the young herbage, and to amuse himself in many ways. After a while, the day being warm, he lay down for a nap, saying: "She is behind me now. If she should go by, I can easily enough catch up."\n\nWhen the Hare awoke, the Tortoise was not in sight; and running as fast as he could, he found her comfortably dozing at their goal.\n\nThose who are very quick are apt to be too sure. Slow and steady often wins the race.
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7 THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE
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THE ARAB AND HIS CAMEL\n\nAs an Arab sat in his tent one cold night, he saw the curtain gently lifted, and the face of his Camel looking in.\n\n"What is it?" he asked kindly.\n\n"It is cold, master," said the Camel; "suffer me, I pray thee, to hold my head within the tent."\n\n"By all means," replied the hospitable Arab; and the Camel stood with his head inside the tent.\n\n"Might I also warm my neck a little?" he entreated after a moment.\n\nThe Arab readily consented, and the Camel's neck was thrust within the\ntent.\n\nHe stood, moving his head from side to side uneasily, and presently said: "It is awkward standing thus. It would take but little more room if I were to place my forelegs inside the tent."\n\n"You may place your forelegs within the tent," said the Arab. And now he had to move a little to make room, for the tent was small.\n\nThe Camel spoke again: "I keep the tent open by standing thus, and make it cold for us both. May I not stand wholly within?"\n\n"Yes," said the Arab, whose compassion included his beast as well as himself; "come in wholly if you wish." But now the tent proved to be too small to hold both.\n\n"I think, after all," said the Camel, as he crowded himself in, "that there will not be room here for us both. You are the smaller; it will be best for you to stand outside. There will be room then for me." So he pushed a little, and the Arab with all haste went outside the tent.
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8 THE ARAB AND HIS CAMEL
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THE FOX WHO HAD LOST HIS TAIL\n\nA Fox was once caught in a trap by his tail. He succeeded in getting away, but was forced to leave his "brush" behind. He soon realized that his life would be a burden, from the shame and ridicule to which his tailless condition would expose him.\n\n"I must not own that it is a misfortune not to have a bushy tail," he said to himself.\n\nSo he set about to induce all the other Foxes to part with theirs. At the next assembly he boldly made a speech, in which he set forth the advantages of his present state.\n\n"The tail," he said, "is no real part of our persons, and besides being very ugly to see, it exposes us to danger from the dogs. I have never moved about with such ease as since I gave up my own."\n\nWhen he had ended his speech, a sly old Fox arose, and giving his own brush a graceful wave, said, with the kind of sneer which all Foxes know so well how to give, that if he had lost by accident his own tail, he should, without doubt, agree with his friend; but that, as the brush was a fox's chief ornament and distinction, until such a mishap should occur as had befallen his friend, he should retain his own and should advise the others to do the same. And the vote to retain the tails was given by a wave of the brush. Yet many fashions have been set by Foxes who have met with some such accident.
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9 THE FOX WHO HAD LOST HIS TAIL
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THE BOYS AND THE FROGS\n\nSome Boys, playing near a pond, saw a number of Frogs sporting in the water.\n\n"Let us see if we can hit them; it is great fun to make them dive," said one; and they all began to pelt them with stones.\n\nAt last, after several Frogs had been hit, one of them put his head up out of the water, and said: "Pray stop, Boys. Throwing stones at us may be great sport for you, but it is death to us. We have done you no harm, and alas! you have already killed or wounded three of our family."
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10 THE BOYS AND THE FROGS
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THE SWALLOW AND THE OTHER BIRDS\n\nA wise Swallow, seeing a man sow seed in a field, went behind him and picked up one of the seeds to see what it was.\n\nShe found that it was flax. "When this flax has grown," she said to herself, "the man will make it into linen thread and use it to make nets for catching us Birds."\n\nSo she went to all the Birds and told them what she had discovered, begging them to come and help her eat up the flaxseed before it should sprout. "This field," she said, "is as much ours as it is his. And while one of us can do but little, all working together can quickly remove our danger."\n\nBut the Birds would not listen to her. Not one of them could she persuade to help her pick up the seeds which the farmer had sown.\n\nBy and by the flax sprang up, and the Swallow tried again to persuade the Birds to pull the young flax before it grew large. But they all made fun of her caution and let the flax keep growing.\n\nWhen she saw how heedless all the Birds were, the Swallow would have nothing more to do with them, but left the woods where they lived and came among men, building her nests in barns and along the eaves of houses.
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11 THE SWALLOW AND THE OTHER BIRDS
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THE FARMER AND THE SNAKE\n\nOne wintry day a Farmer found a Snake lying on the frozen ground, quite stiff and nearly dead with cold.\n\nIn a fit of compassion the Farmer brought him carefully to his house, and laid him near the fire. But as soon as the Snake began to feel the pleasant warmth, he raised his head and tried to bite his kind friend.\n\n"Oh!" said the Farmer, "is that the way you repay me for my trouble? You are a venomous creature, I am sure, and the sooner you die the better." And he killed him with one blow of his stick.
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12 THE FARMER AND THE SNAKE
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THE RAVEN AND THE SWAN\n\nA Raven saw a snowy Swan floating on the lake.\n\n"No wonder the Swan is so white," thought the Raven, as he looked at his own black feathers. "I dare say _I_ should be, if I were all the time washing myself. I believe I'll try it."\n\nThen he left his home, where he always found plenty to eat, and came and lived by the lake. He washed himself from morning till night, but he grew no whiter; and, as he found nothing to eat, he came near dying for want of food.
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13 THE RAVEN AND THE SWAN
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THE BIRDS, THE BEASTS, AND THE BAT\n\nThere was once a big battle between the Birds and the Beasts. Hesitating as to which to join, the Bat kept away from the contest and looked on till he thought the Beasts would win the day.\n\nThen he went among them. When they saw him, they said, "But you are a Bird."\n\n"No, indeed," said the Bat. "Look at my body covered with hair and at my mouth with its sharp teeth."\n\nAfter a while, as the fight went on, the Birds began to have the best of it, and then away flew the Bat to their side. "What Beast comes here?" said the Birds.\n\n"I am not a Beast," said the Bat; "I am a Bird. Look at my wings. This is my battle as truly as it is yours."\n\nBut the Birds would have nothing to do with him. And to this day the Bat seems ashamed to show himself in the daytime but hides in lonely places, away from all other creatures, and only flits about noiselessly in the dark, when both Birds and Beasts are asleep.
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14 THE BIRDS, THE BEASTS, AND THE BAT
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THE MAN, HIS SON, AND HIS DONKEY\n\nA Man and his Son were once driving their Donkey along a country road, to sell him at the fair. They soon passed some girls, who were drawing water at a well.\n\n"Look," said one of the girls; "see those silly people trudging along in the dust, while their Donkey walks at his ease."\n\nThe Man heard what they said, and put his boy on the Donkey's back. They had not gone far before they came to some old men.\n\n"See here, now," said one of them to the others, "this shows that what I said is true. Nowadays the young take no care of the old. See this boy riding while his poor old father has to walk by his side."\n\nHearing this, the Man told his Son to get down, and he mounted the Donkey himself. In a little while they met three women with children in their arms.\n\n"For shame!" said the women. "How can you let that poor boy walk when he looks so tired, and you ride like a king?"\n\nThe Man then took the boy up behind him on the saddle, and they rode on to the town. Just before they got there, some young men stopped them and said:\n\n"Is that Donkey yours?"\n\n"Yes," said the Man.\n\n"One would not think so," said they, "by the way you load him. You look more fit to carry him than he to carry you."\n\nSo the Man and the boy got off, tied the Donkey's legs with a rope, fastened him to a pole, and, each taking one end of the pole, carried him along, while every one they met laughed outright.\n\nBy and by they came to a bridge. Then the Donkey began to kick, and breaking the rope, fell into the water and was drowned.\n\nThe old Man and his Son made their way home as best they could, thinking to themselves, "When we try to please everybody, we please nobody."
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15 THE MAN, HIS SON, AND HIS DONKEY
