hey ever saw to the bottom of them. Indeed, many very sensible geese,
who made few pretensions to learning, have doubted whether they saw
very clearly into these questions themselves. I, too, have my doubts
on the subject, as well as these sensible geese; and I go farther
than they in my doubts. I doubt whether, in case any learned goose
could see to the bottom of very many of these muddy subjects, his
knowledge would be worth much to him. I will give you a specimen of
some of the questions they used to debate upon, and leave you to judge
of their value for yourselves. They were such as these:

"How _thick_ is the shadow of a goose in the moonlight?"

"How much would the shadow of a tolerably learned gander weigh, if it
could be weighed?"

"How early do goslings begin to know a great many things, if not
more?"

"When a fox starts off after a goose, is it because he loves himself,
or because he loves his wife and the little foxes?"

"Whether geese ought not to be willing to die, for the sake of
affording a good dinner to Christians on Christmas and Thanksgiving
days?"

"Whether there would be such a thing as a good, pious goose, who was
not willing to die for such a purpose?"

One day, our learned geese were holding a meeting in the barn yard,
according to their custom, and were, if possible, more earnest and
noisy than ever in their discussions. This time they were considering
what it was best to do to prevent foxes from making such havoc in the
neighborhood. The question was submitted, whether it would not be
safer and better for geese to sleep with their heads up, instead of
placing them under their wings, after the old fashion.

But right in the midst of the debate, while one of the speakers was
astonishing himself as well as the rest of the company, with his
reasoning and his eloquence, a fox, who had been slily listening to
the debate, stepped into their ranks, and seized the orator, cutting
short his neck and his speech at the same instant.

MORAL.

There are several things to be learned by this fable. But I shall
content myself with simply pointing out one of them, presuming your
good sense will discover the rest: _Before you attempt to take care of
others, learn to take care of yourselves_.

XII.

THE WRONG WAY.

Edward was rather a rude, headstrong boy. Like a great many young
people of his age, he needed to be punished sometimes, and sometimes
his parents did deal pretty sternly wit