only one; but let it be a good
one.

XXIX

THE MONKEY AND THE CAT

(BOOK IX.--No. 17)

Bertrand was a monkey and Ratter was a cat. They shared the same
dwelling and had the same master, and a pretty mischievous pair they
were. It was impossible to intimidate them. If anything was missed or
spoilt, no one thought of blaming the other people in the house.
Bertrand stole all he could lay his hands upon, and as for Ratter, he
gave more attention to cheese than he did to the mice.

One day, in the chimney corner, these two rascals sat watching some
chestnuts that were roasting before the fire. How jolly it would be to
steal them they thought: doubly desirable, for it would not only be joy
to themselves, but an annoyance to others.

"Brother," said Bertrand to Ratter, "this day you shall achieve your
master-stroke: you shall snatch some chestnuts out of the fire for me.
Providence has not fitted me for that sort of game. If it had, I assure
you chestnuts would have a fine time."

No sooner said than done. Ratter delicately stirred the cinders with his
paw, stretched out his claws two or three times to prepare for the
stroke, and then adroitly whipped out first one, then two, then three of
the chestnuts, whilst Bertrand crunched them up between his teeth. In
came a servant, and there was an end of the business. Farewell, ye
rogues!

I am told that Ratter was by no means satisfied with the affair.

And princes are equally dissatisfied when, flattered to be employed in
any uncomfortable concern, they burn their fingers in a distant province
for the profit of some king.

XXX

THE TWO RATS, THE FOX, AND THE EGG[8]

(BOOK X.--No. 1)

Do not take it ill if, in these fables, I mingle a little of the bold,
daring, and fine-spun philosophy that is called new.

They say that the lower animals are mere machines: that everything they
do is prompted, not by choice, but by mechanism, coming about as it were
by springs. There is, they say, neither feeling nor soul--nothing but a
mechanical body. It goes just as a watch or clock goes, plodding on with
even motion, blindly and aimlessly.

Open such a machine and examine it; what do we find? Wheels take the
place of intelligence. The first wheel moves the second, and that in
turn moves a third, with the result that, in due time, it strikes the
hour.

According to these new philosophers, that is exactly the case with an
animal. It receives a blow in a cer