THE ANT AND THE FLY.

An Ant and a Fly one day disputed as to their respective merits.

"Vile creeping insect!" said the Fly to the Ant, "can you for a moment compare yourself with me? I soar on the wing like a bird. I enter the palaces of kings, and alight on the heads of princes, nay, of emperors, and only quit them to adorn the yet more attractive brow of beauty. Besides, I visit the altars of the gods. sacrifice is offered but is first tasted by me. Every feast, too, is open to me. I eat and drink of the best, instead of living for days on two or three grains of corn as you do."

Not a

"All that's very fine," replied the Ant; "but listen to me. You boast of your feasting, but you know that your diet is not always so choice, and you are sometimes forced to eat what nothing should induce me to touch. As for alighting on the heads of kings and emperors, you know very well that whether you pitch on the head of an emperor, or of an ass (and it is as often on the one as the other), you are shaken off from both with impatience. And, then, the altars of the gods,' indeed! There and everywhere else you are looked upon as nothing but a nuisance. the winter, too, while I feed at my ease on the fruit of my toil, I often see your friends dying

In

with cold, hunger, and fatigue.

I lose my time

now in talking to you. Chattering will fill neither my bin nor my cupboard."

Bread earned by toil is sweet.

THE STAG IN THE OX-STALL.

A Stag, hard pressed by the Hounds, ran for shelter into an ox-stall, the door of which was open. One of the Oxen turned round, and asked him why he came to such a place as that, where he would be sure to be taken. The Stag replied that he should do well enough if the Oxen would not tell of him; and, covering himself in a heap of straw, waited for the night. Several servants, and even the Overseer himself, came and looked round, but saw nothing of the Stag, who, as each went away, was ready to jump out of his skin for joy, and warmly thanked the Oxen for their silence.

The Ox who had spoken first to him warned him not to be too sure of his escape, and said that, glad as they would all be for him to get away, there was a certain person still to come whose eyes were a deal sharper than the eyes of any one who had been there yet. This was the Master himself, who, having been dining with a neighbor, looked in on his way home to see that

all was right. At a glance he saw the tips of the horns coming through the straw, whereupon he raised a hue and cry, called all his people together, and made a prize of the Stag.

The eye of the master does more than all
his servants.

THE LION AND THE MOUSE.

A Lion, tired with the chase, lay sleeping at full length under a shady tree. Some Mice scrambling over him while he slept, awoke him. Laying his paw upon one of them, he was about to crush him, when the Mouse implored his mercy.

"Spare me, O King!" said he, and maybe the day will come when I can be of service to you." The Lion, tickled with the idea of the Mouse helping him, lifted his paw and let the little creature go.

Some time after, the Lion was caught in a net laid by some hunters, and, unable to free himself, made the forest resound with his roars. The Mouse whose life had been spared came, and with his little sharp teeth soon gnawed the ropes asunder, and set the Lion free.

The least may help the greatest.

THE FATAL COURTSHIP.

The freed Lion, spoken of in the last Fable, was so grateful to the Mouse, that he told him to name what he most desired, and he should have his wish.

The Mouse, fired with ambition, said, "I desire the hand of your daughter in marriage."

This the Lion good-naturedly gave him, and called the young Lioness to come that way. She did so; and rushed up so heedlessly that she did not see her small suitor, but placed her paw on him and crushed him to death.

Bad wishing makes bad getting.

THE OX AND THE FROG.

An Ox, grazing in a meadow, chanced to set his foot on a young Frog and crushed him to death. His brothers and sisters, who were playing near, at once ran to tell their mother what had happened. "The monster that did it, mother, was such a size!" said they.

The mother, who was a vain old thing, thought that she could easily make herself as large. "Was it as big as this?" she asked, blowing and puffing herself out.

"Oh, much bigger than that!" replied the young Frogs.

"As this, then?" cried she, puffing and blowing again with all her might.

"Nay, mother," said they; "if you were to try till you burst yourself, you would never be so big."

The silly old Frog tried to puff herself out still more, and burst herself indeed.

Men are ruined by attempting a greatness to
which they have no claim.

THE HAWK AND THE NIGHTINGALE.

A Nightingale once fell into the clutches of a hungry Hawk who had been all day on the look-out for food.

"Pray let me go," said the Nightingale, "I am such a mite for a stomach like yours. I sing so nicely, too. Do let me go, it will do you good to

hear me."

"Much good it will do an empty stomach," replied the Hawk, "and besides, a little bird that I have is more to me than a great one that has yet to be caught."

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.