swallow by flying----"

"Well! what about Ceres? What did she do?" cried the crowd with one
voice.

"She did what she did!" retorted the speaker in anger. "But first she
raged against you. What! Does it take a child's story to open your ears,
you who should be eager for any news of the peril that menaces; you, the
only state in Greece that takes no heed? You ask what Ceres did. Why do
you not ask what Philip[4] does?"

At this reproach the assembly was stirred. A mere fable brought them
open-eared to all the orator would say.

We are all Athenians in this respect. I myself am, even as I point this
moral. I should take the utmost pleasure now in hearing "The Ass's
Skin"[5] told to me. The world is old, they say: so it is; but,
nevertheless, it is as greedy of amusement as a child.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 2: Elizur Wright explains that the orator was Demades.]

[Footnote 3: Horace spoke of the Roman people as a beast with many
heads.]

[Footnote 4: Philip of Macedon, who was at war against the Greeks.]

[Footnote 5: An old French nursery tale.]

XVII

THE DOG WHO CARRIED HIS MASTER'S DINNER

(BOOK VIII.--No. 7)

Our hands are no more proof against gold than our eyes are proof against
beauty. There are but few who guard their treasures with care enough.

A certain dog who had been taught to carry to his master the mid-day
meal was one day trotting along with the savoury burden slung around his
neck. He was tempted to take a taste himself; but knew that it would be
wrong to do so, and being a temperate, self-governed dog he refrained.
We of the human race allow ourselves to be tempted by covetable things
often enough; but, strange as it is, there seems to be more difficulty
in teaching mankind to resist temptation than there is in teaching dogs
to do so.

On this particular day the dog was met by a mastiff who at once wanted
the dinner, but did not find it so easy to capture as he thought; for
our dog put it down and stood guard over it. There was a mighty tussle.
Soon others arrived; curs that were used to knocks and kicks while
picking up a living in the streets. Seeing that he should be badly
over-matched, and that his master's dinner was in danger of being
devoured by the crowd, he bethought himself how he too might have his
share, if shared it must be. So he very wisely exclaimed, "No fighting,
gentlemen, my bit will suffice me. Do as you please with the rest." With
these words he snappe