'It must needs be,' sighed the King, after a pause; 'but what
ill-fortune!'

'If it please your Majesty, no,' replied the Minister; 'it is written--

"'Tis the fool who, meeting trouble, straightway destiny reviles;
Knowing not his own misdoing brought his own mischance the whiles."

You have forgotten the saying--

'Who listens not, when true friends counsel well,
Must fall, as once the foolish Tortoise fell.'

'I never heard it,' said the King. 'How was that?' The Goose related--


THE STORY OF THE TORTOISE AND THE GEESE

"There is a pool in South Behar called the 'Pool of the Blue Lotus,' and
two Geese had for a long time lived there. They had a friend in the pool
who was a Tortoise, and he was known as 'Shelly-neck,' It chanced one
evening that the Tortoise overheard some fishermen talking by the water.
'We will stop here to-night,' they said, 'and in the morning we will
catch the fish, the tortoises, and such like.' Extremely alarmed at
this, the Tortoise repaired to his friends the Geese, and reported the
conversation.

'What ever am I to do, Gossips?' he asked.

'The first thing is to be assured of the danger,' said the Geese.