84 FAVOURITE FABLES.

FABLE. LXie
THE DOG AND THE WOLF.

A LEAN, hungry, half-starved Wolf happened, one moon-
shiny night, to meet a jolly, plump, well-fed Mastiff; and
after the first compliments were passed, says the Wolf, ‘You
look extremely well; I protest, I think I never saw a more
graceful, comely person; but how comes it about, I beseech
you, that you should live so much betterthan I? I may say,
without vanity, that I venture fifty times more than you do,
and yet I am almost ready to perish with hunger.’’ The Dog
answered very bluntly, ‘‘ Why, you may live as well, if you

do the same for it as I do.’”’ ‘Indeed! what is that?’’ says
he. ‘‘ Why,” says the Dog, “‘only to guard the house at
night, and keep it from thieves.’’ ‘With all my heart,”

replies the Wolf, “for at present I have but a sorry time of
it; and I think to change my hard lodging in the woods,
where I endure rain, frost, and snow, for a warm roof over
my head and enough of good victuals, will be no bad
bargain.”” ‘True,’ says the Dog; ‘therefore you have
nothing to do but to follow me.”’

Now, as they were jogging on together, the Wolf spied a