to pull on his boots, was caught by the foot. And it happened in
like manner to a wretched slave, who, although she never had
shoes to her feet, wanted to wear a crown on her head. But the
straight road is the best; and, sooner or later, a day comes which
settles all accounts. At last, having by evil means usurped what
belonged to another, she fell to the ground; and the higher she had
mounted, the greater was her fall--as you shall see.


Once upon a time the King of Woody Valley had a daughter
named Zoza, who was never seen to laugh. The unhappy father,
who had no other comfort in life but this only daughter, left
nothing untried to drive away her melancholy. So he sent for folks
who walk on stilts, fellows who jump through hoops, for boxers,
for conjurers, for jugglers who perform sleight-of-hand tricks, for
strong men, for dancing dogs, for leaping clowns, for the donkey
that drinks out of a tumbler--in short, he tried first one thing and
then another to make her laugh. But all was time lost, for nothing
could bring a smile to her lips.

So at length the poor father, at wit's end, and to make a last trial,
ordered a large fountain of oil to be set in front of the palace gates,
thinking to himself that when the oil ran down the street, along
which the people passed like a troop of ants, they would be
obliged, in order not to soil their clothes, to skip like grasshoppers,
leap like goats, and run like hares; while one would go picking and
choosing his way, and another go creeping along the wall. In short,
he hoped that something might come to pass to make his daughter
laugh.