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LESSON 11
TWO hungry cats, having stolen some cheese, could not agree bet ween themselves how to divide their booty.
They therefore went to law, and a cunning monkey was to decide their cause.
“Let us see,” said the judge (with as arch a look as could be): “ay, ay, this slice truly outweighs
the other;” and so saying he bit offa large piece, in order, as he told them, to make the shares equal.
The other scale had now become too heavy, which gave this upright judge a pretence to help himself to a mouthful from the second slice.
“Hold! hold!” cried the two cats; “give each of us our share of what is left, and we shall be content.”
“If you are content,” said the monkey, “justice is not: the law, my friends, must take its course.”
Upon this, he nibbled first one piece and then the other, till the poor cats saw that their cheese was in a fair way to be all eaten up. They therefore most humbly begged him not to put himself to any further trouble, but to give them what was still left.
“Ha! ha! ha! not so fast, good ladies,” said the monkey; “we owe justice to ourselves as well as to you; and what remains is due to me as the lawyer.”
So he crammed the whole into his mouth at once, and very gravely broke up the court!
This fable teaches us that it is better to put up with a trifling loss, than to run the risk of losing all we have by going to law.
A FOX being caught in a trap, was glad to save his neck by leaving his tail behind him; but, upon going abroad into the world, he began to be so ashamed of his defect
, that he almost wished he had died in the trap. However, resolving to make the best of a bad case, he called a meeting of the rest of the foxes, and proposed that they should all follow his example.
“You have no notion,” said he, “of the ease and comfort with which I now move about. I could never have believed it if I had not tried it myself. But really, when one comes to think of it, a tail is such an ugly, useless thing, that one wonders how foxes have put up with it so long. I propose, therefore, my worthy brethren, that you should profit by my example, and that all foxes from this day forward should cut offtheir tails.”
Thereupon, one of the oldest stepped forward, and said, “I rather think, my friend, that you would not have advised us to part with our tails, if there had been any chance of recovering your own.”
A WOODMAN was felling a tree on the bank of a river, and by chance let slip his axe into the water, when it immediately sank to the bottom. In great distress for his loss, he sat down by the side of the stream, and lamented bitterly. But Mercury, whose river it was, taking pity on him, appeared before him. Hearing the cause of his sorrow, he dived to the bottom of the river, and bringing up a golden axe, asked the woodman if that was his.
Upon the man denying it, Mercury dived a second time, and brought up one of silver. Again the man denied that it was his. So diving a third time, he produced the very axe which the man had lost.
“That is mine!” said the woodman, glad to have recovered his own; and so pleased was Mercury with the fellow’s truthfulness and honesty, that he at once made him a present of the other two.
When the man’s companions heard this story, one of them determined to try whether he might not have the like good fortune. So going to the same place, as if for the purpose of cutting wood, he let his axe slip intentionally into the river, and then sat down on the bank, and made a great show of weeping.
Mercury appeared as before; and hearing from him that his tears were caused by the loss of his axe, he dived into the stream, and bringing up a golden axe, asked him if that was the axe he had lost.
“Ay, surely!” said the man, eagerly; and he was about to grasp the treasure, when Mercury, to punish his impudence and lying, not only refused to give him that one, but would not so much as restore
him his own axe again.
Honesty is the best policy.
Why did the two cats go to law? Who was the judge? How did he make the heavier slice lighter? What excuse had he for doing the same to the other piece? What did the cats then say? What did the monkey reply? And what became of all the cheese? What does this fable teach? —What led the fox to advise his neighbours to cut off their tails? What reason did he give for it? What did an old fox say? —Why did Mercury give the woodman the golden and the silver axe? What did one of his companions do? What did he say when he saw the golden axe? How was he punished?
hun´-gry re-mained´ be-lieved´ Mer´-cu-ry
cun´-ning law´-yer in-con-ve´-ni-ent de-ny´-ing
de-cide´ sen´-si-ble un-nec´-es-sar-y de-ter´-mined
bal´-ance dis-grace´ ex-pe´-ri-ence in-ten´-tion-al-ly
pre-tence´ pro-posed´ re-cov´-er-ing im´-pu-dence