A brisk young Cock, scratching for something with which to entertain his
favourite Hens, happened to turn up a Jewel. Feeling quite sure that it was
something precious, but not knowing well what to do with it, he addressed it
with an air of affected wisdom, as follows: "You are a very fine thing, no doubt,
but you are not at all to my taste. For my part, I would rather have one grain of
dear delicious barley than all the Jewels in the world."
The Man and the Lion
A Man and a Lion were discussing the relative strength of men and lions in
general, the Man contending that he and his fellows were stronger than lions by
reason of their greater intelligence.
"Come now with me," he cried to the beast, "and I will soon prove that I am
right." So he took him into the public gardens and showed him a statue of
Hercules overcoming the Lion. and tearing him to pieces.
"That is all very well," said the Lion, "but it proves nothing, for it was a man
who made the statue!"
The Discontented Ass
In the depth of winter a poor Ass once prayed heartily for the spring, that he
might exchange a cold lodging and a heartless truss of straw for a little warm
weather and a mouthful of fresh grass. In a short time, according to his wish, the
warm weather and the fresh grass came on, but brought with them so much toil
and business that he was soon as weary of the spring as before of the winter, and
he now became impatient for the approach of summer. The summer arrived; but
the heat, the harvest work and other drudgeries and inconveniences of the season
set him as far from happiness as before, which he now flattered himself would
be found in the plenty of autumn. But here, too, he was disappointed; for what
with the carrying of apples, roots, fuel for the winter, and other provisions, he
was in autumn more fatigued than ever.
Having thus trod around the circle of the year, in a course of restless labour,
uneasiness and disappointment, and found no season, nor station of life without