he came there the Lion simply pounced on the Ass, and said to the
Fox: "Here is our dinner for to-day. Watch you here while I go
and have a nap. Woe betide you if you touch my prey." The Lion
went away and the Fox waited; but finding that his master did not
return, ventured to take out the brains of the Ass and ate them
up. When the Lion came back he soon noticed the absence of the
brains, and asked the Fox in a terrible voice: "What have you done
with the brains?"

"Brains, your Majesty! it had none, or it would never have
fallen into your trap."

Wit has always an answer ready.



The Eagle and the Arrow


An Eagle was soaring through the air when suddenly it heard
the whizz of an Arrow, and felt itself wounded to death. Slowly
it fluttered down to the earth, with its life-blood pouring out of
it. Looking down upon the Arrow with which it had been pierced,
it found that the shaft of the Arrow had been feathered with one
of its own plumes. "Alas!" it cried, as it died,

"We often give our enemies the means for our own destruction."