THE WOLF AND THE LAMB.

OnE hot day a wolf and a lamb
came to drink at the brook at the same
time. Now, the wolf wanted an excuse
for eating up the lamb, so he said,

“Why do you make the water so
muddy that I cannot drink it?” The
lamb answered very gently, “I cannot
make it muddy for you, since you drink
it before it runs down to me.” ‘ Well,”
said the wolf, “that is true, but I hear

that you spoke ill of me about half a year ago.” “But,” replied the lamb,

“I was not born then.” ‘ Then,” said the wolf, “if it was not you it was

your father, and that is all the same!” So he seized the poor little lamb
and ate it up.

Any excuse will do to make a quarrel, but only wicked people make them.

 

THE CAT AND: THE MICE.

THERE was once a house very full of mice, so the people who lived in it
bought a cat who every day ate some of them. The mice talked together
about it and resolved to keep out of Pussy’s nays so they hid, cunningly, on
an upper shelf. The cat finding that
they did not come out, thought that
she would try to deceive them. So
she hung by her hinder-legs on a peg
in the wall, and pretended to be quite
dead. She thought that then they
would not be afraid of her; but the
mice were not to be imposed upon.
A clever old mouse peeped at the
cat and said, “So you are there! I
would not trust you, though your skin were stuffed with straw. It is best

always to keep away from wicked creatures.”
78