FAVOURITE FABLES. 147

The Ass then made his confession :—‘‘ You both know,”’
said he, ‘“‘that it is not in my nature to do hurt to other
beasts, nor to shed blood; and, therefore, you cannot expect
to hear any such thing from me; but, to content you, I will
relate to you what happened innocently to me, while I was in
the service of a master. He was an old man, and apt to take
cold in his feet ;. so that, when he travelled, to keep them dry
and warm, he was wont to stick a little hay in his shoes.
Now I carried him, one winter, to an inn, where he was to lie
all night; and when we came to the door, the innkeeper
brought him a pair of dry slippers, that his dirty shoes might
not soil the house; so that he pulled them off, and left them
without, and me by them. In short, my master and his host
found themselves so well in the chimney-corner, that they
never thought of poor me; but left me all night in the bitter
cold, without giving mea handful of food: so that I ate up
all the hay that stuck in his shoes. This is all I have to say;
—if you will call it a confession, you may: however, I think
nothing can be said against it.”’

““Oh!”’ said the Fox, immediately, ‘this is not, indeed,
an offence against the letter of the law, which mentions only
the doing hurt to beasts, and takes no notice of eating of
hay; but, if we reflect on the dangerous consequences of this
action, and that so reverend a creature as a chill, aged man,
by being thus robbed of his hay in the winter, and the next