T12 FAVOURITE FABLES.

Threat answered threat, his fury grew;
Headlong to meet the war he flew;
But when the watery death he found,
He thus lamented as he drowned:

“T ne’er had been in this condition,
Had I obeyed the prohibition.”’

MORAL.

Obey your parents, or twill be your fate,
To feel repentance when it comes too late.

 

~—0

FABLE LXXXI.

MERCURY AND THE WOODMAN.

A Man was felling a tree on the bank of a river, and by
chance let his hatchet slip out of his hand, which dropped
into the water, and immediately sunk to the bottom. Being,
therefore, in great distress from the loss of his tool, he sat
down and bemoaned himself most lamentably.

Upon this, Mercury appeared to him, and being informed
of the cause of his complaint, dived to the bottom of the
river, and, coming up again, showed the man a golden
hatchet, demanding if that were his. He denied that it was;