Mamma lioness had lost one of her cubs. Some hunter had made away with
it, and the poor unfortunate mother roared out her wailings to such an
extent that all the inhabitants of the forest were seriously disturbed.
The spells of the night, its darkness and its silence, were powerless to
hush the tumult of the queen of the forest. Sleep was driven from every
animal within hearing.

At last the she-bear rose up and coming to the wailing lioness said,
"Good Gossip, just one word with you. All those little ones that have
passed between your teeth, had they neither fathers nor mothers?"

"To be sure they had."

"Then if that be so, and as none have come to mourn their dead in cries
which would split our heads: if so many mothers have borne their loss
silently, why cannot you be silent also?"

"I? I be silent? Unhappy I? Ah! I have lost my son! There is nought for
me but to drag out a miserable old age."

"But pray tell me what obliges you to do so."

"Alas! Destiny. It is Destiny that hates me."

[Illustration: Why cannot you be silent also?]

Those are the words that are for ever in the mouths of us all.

Unhappy human kind, let this address itself to you. I hear nothing but
the echoing murmur of trifling complaints. Whoever, in like case,