The Talking Beasts | Page 8

asked him, with a mischievous smile, what
was the wonderful secret that the Bear had whispered into his ear,
"Why," replied the other sulkily, "he told me to take care for the future
and not to put any confidence in such cowardly rascals as you are!"

The Fox Without a Tail
A Fox was once caught in a trap by his tail, and in order to get away

was forced to leave it behind him. Knowing that without a tail he would
be a laughing-stock for all his fellows, he resolved to try to induce them
to part with theirs. At the next assembly of Foxes, therefore, he made a
speech on the unprofitableness of tails in general, and the
inconvenience of a Fox's tail in particular, adding that he had never felt
so easy as since he had given up his own.
When he had sat down, a sly old fellow rose, and waving his long brush
with a graceful air, said, with a sneer, that if, like the last speaker, he
had been so unfortunate as to lose his tail, nothing further would have
been needed to convince him; but till such an accident should happen,
he should certainly vote in favour of tails.

The Crab and Its Mother
One fine day two Crabs came out from their home to take a stroll on
the sand. "Child," said the mother, "you are walking very ungracefully.
You should accustom yourself to walking straight forward without
twisting from side to side."
"Pray, mother," said the young one, "do but set the example yourself,
and I will follow you!"

The Jackdaw with Borrowed Plumes
A Jackdaw, having dressed himself in feathers which had fallen from
some Peacocks, strutted about in the company of those birds and tried
to pass himself off as one of them.
They soon found him out, however, and pulled their plumes from him
so roughly, and in other ways so battered him, that he would have been
glad to rejoin his humble fellows, but they, in their turn, would have
nothing to do with him, and driving him from their society, told him to
remember that it is not only fine feathers that make fine birds.

The Farmer and His Dog
A Farmer who had just stepped into the field to close a gap in one of
his fences found on his return the cradle, where he had left his only
child asleep, turned upside down, the clothes all torn and bloody, and
his Dog lying near it besmeared also with blood. Convinced at once
that the creature had destroyed his child, he instantly dashed out its
brains with the hatchet in his hand; when, turning up the cradle, he
found the child unhurt and an enormous serpent lying dead on the floor,
killed by the faithful Dog, whose courage and fidelity in preserving the
life of his son deserved another kind of reward.
These affecting circumstances afforded him a striking lesson upon how
dangerous it is hastily to give way to the blind impulse of a sudden
passion.

The Fox and the Countryman
A Fox, having been hunted hard and chased a long way, saw a
Countryman at work in a wood and begged his assistance to some
hiding-place. The man said he might go into his cottage, which was
close by.
He was no sooner in than the huntsmen came up. "Have you seen a Fox
pass this way?" said they. The Countryman said "No," but pointed at
the same time toward the place where the Fox lay. The huntsmen did
not take the hint, however, and made off again at full speed.
The Fox, who had seen all that took place through a chink in the wall,
thereupon came out and was walking away without a word.
"Why, how now!" said the Countryman, "haven't you the manners to
thank your host before you go?"
"Nay, nay," said the Fox; "if you had been as honest with your finger as

you were with your tongue, I shouldn't have gone without saying
good-bye."

Belling the Cat
A certain Cat that lived in a large country house was so vigilant and
active in the performance of her duties that the Mice, finding their
numbers grievously thinned, held a council with closed doors to
consider what they had best do.
Many plans had been started and dismissed, when a young Mouse,
rising and catching the eye of the President, said that he had a proposal
to make that he was sure must meet with the approval of all. "If," said
he, "the Cat should wear around her neck a little bell, every step she
took would make it tinkle; then, ever forewarned of her approach, we
should have time to reach our holes. By this simple