A Rascally Dog used to run quietly to the heels of every passer-by, and bite them without warning. So his master was obliged to tie a bell around the cur's neck that he might give notice wherever he went. This the Dog thought very fine indeed, and he went about tinkling it in pride all over town.

But an old Hound said : "Why do you make such a fool of yourself? That bell is not a mark of merit, but of disgrace."

Notoriety is often mistaken for fame.

THE BROTHER AND SISTER.

A Certain Man had two children, a boy and a girl. The lad was a handsome young fellow, but the girl was as plain as a girl can well be. The Sister, provoked beyond endurance by the way in which her Brother looked in the glass and made remarks to her disadvantage, went to her father and complained of it.

The father drew his children to him very tenderly, and said, "My dears, I wish you both to look in the glass every day. You, my son, that, seeing your face is handsome, you may take care not to spoil it by ill-temper and bad behavior, and you,

my daughter, that you may be encouraged to make up for your want of beauty by the sweetness of your manners, and the grace of your conversation."

Handsome is as handsome does.

THE BOASTING TRAVELLER.

A Man was one day entertaining a lot of fellows with an account of the wonders he had done when abroad on his travels.

"I was once at Rhodes," said he, "and the people of Rhodes, you know, are famous for jumping. Well, I took a jump there that no other man could come within a yard of. That's a fact, and if we were there I could bring you ten men who would prove it."

"What need is there to go to Rhodes for witnesses?" asked one of his hearers; "just imagine that you are there now, and show us your leap."

Seeing is believing.

THE SPENDTHRIFT AND THE

SWALLOW.

A Prodigal young Fellow, who had run through all his money, and even sold all his outer clothes

except his cloak, seeing a Swallow skimming over the meadows one fine day in the early spring, believed that summer was really come, and sold his cloak too. The next morning there happened to be a severe frost, and, shivering and nearly frozen himself, he found the Swallow lying stiff and dead upon the ground. He thereupon upbraided the poor bird as the cause of all his misfortunes.

"Stupid thing!" said he, "had you not come before your time, I should not now be so wretched." Be not ready to believe rumors.

THE LEOPARD AND THE FOX.

The Leopard one day, in the hearing of the Fox, was very loud in the praise of his own beautifully spotted skin. The Fox thereupon told him that, handsome as he might be, he considered that he himself was yet a great deal handsomer.

"Your beauty is of the body," said the Fox; "mine is of the mind."

Beauty is skin deep.

THE FEOLICSOME CALF.

A Calf, full of play and wantonness, seeing an Ox at the plow, could not forbear insulting him.

"What a sorry old drudge you are," said he, "to bear that heavy yoke upon your neck, and with a plow at your tail all day, to go turning up the ground for a master. You are a wretched slave, and know no better, or you would not do it. See what a happy life I lead; I go just where I please sometimes in the cool shade, sometimes in the warm sunshine; and whenever I like, I drink at the clear, running brook.”

The Ox, not at all moved by this address, went on quietly and calmly with his work, and in the evening, when unyoked and going to take his rest, he saw the Calf being led off by the butcher. He pitied him, but could not help saying, as he passed, "Now, friend, whose condition is the better, yours or mine?"

Youth and folly often live together.

THE JACKDAW AND THE PIGEONS.

A Jackdaw seeing how well some Pigeons in a certain dove-cote fed, and how happily they lived together, wished much to join them. With this view he whitened his feathers, and slipped in one evening just as it was getting dark. As long as he kept quiet he escaped notice, but growing bolder by degrees, and feeling very jolly in his new quar

ters, he burst into a hearty laugh. His voice betrayed him. The Pigeons set upon him and drove him out.

When he would afterwards have joined the Jackdaws again, his discolored feathers and his battered state drew attention to him, and his former mates finding out what he had been at, would let him have no further part with them.

He who pursues two courses succeeds with
neither.

THE HARES AND THE FEOGS.

The Hares once took serious counsel among themselves whether death itself would not be better than their wretched lot.

"What a sad state is ours," they said, "never to eat in comfort, always to sleep in fear, to be startled by a shadow, and fly with beating heart at the rustling of the leaves. Better death by far;" and off they went accordingly to drown themselves in a neighboring lake.

Some scores of Frogs who were enjoying the moonlight on the bank, scared at the approach of the Hares, jumped into the water. The splash awoke fresh fears in the breasts of the timid Hares, and they came to a full stop in their flight. One wise old fellow among them cried,