he, with affected concern, "can it really be you that I see down there?
How cold you must feel! How long have you been in the water? How came
you to fall in? I am so pained to see you. Do tell me all about it!"

"The end of a rope would be of more use to me than all your pity,"
answered the Fox.

"Just help me to get my foot on solid ground once more, and you shall
have the whole story."



The Hen and the Fox

A Fox, having crept into an outhouse, looked up and down for something
to eat, and at last espied a Hen sitting upon a perch so high that he
could be no means come at her. He therefore had recourse to an old
stratagem.

"Dear cousin," said he to her, "how do you do? I heard that you were
ill and kept at home; I could not rest, therefore, till I had come to
see you. Pray let me feel your pulse. Indeed, you do not look well at
all."

He was running on in this impudent manner, when the Hen answered him
from the roost: "Truly, dear Reynard, you are in the right. I was
seldom in more danger than I am now. Pray excuse my coming down; I am
sure I should catch my death."

The Fox, finding himself foiled by the Hen's cleverness, made off and