e outline
of the silvery planet, and Reynard was in despair.

[Illustration: Descended by his greater weight.]

At last a wolf, parched with thirst, drew near, to whom the fox called
from below, "Comrade, here is a treat for you! Do you see this? It is an
exquisite cheese, made by Faunus[16] from milk of the heifer Io.[17] If
Jupiter were ill and lost his appetite he would find it again by one
taste of this. I have only eaten this piece out of it; the rest will be
plenty for you. Come down in the pail up there. I put it there on
purpose for you."

A rigmarole so cleverly told was easily believed by the fool of a wolf,
who descended by his greater weight, which not only took him down, but
brought the fox up.

We ought not to laugh at the wolf, for we often enough let ourselves be
deluded with just as little cause. Everybody is ready to believe the
thing he fears and the thing he desires.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 16: The benign spirit of the fields and woods.]

[Footnote 17: A priestess who was changed by Hera, wife of Zeus, into a
white heifer.]

XXXVII

THE MICE AND THE SCREECH-OWL

(BOOK XI.--No. 9)

It is not always wise to say to your company, "Just listen to this joke"
or "What do you think of this for a marvel?" for one can never be sure
that the listeners will regard the matter in the same way that the
teller does. Yet here is a case that makes an exception to this good
rule, and I maintain that it is in truth wonderful, and, although it has
the appearance of being a fable, it is in reality absolute fact.

There was once an extremely old pine-tree which an owl, that grim bird
which Atropus[18] takes for her interpreter, had made to serve as his
palace. But there were other tenants lodging in its cavernous and
time-rotted trunk. These were mice, well fed, positive balls of fat, but
not one of them had a foot. They had all been mutilated. The owl had
nipped their feet off with his beak, whilst feeding and fostering them
with wheat from neighbouring stacks.

It must be confessed that this bird had reasoned.

Doubtless, in his time, when hunting mice, he had found that after
bringing them home they escaped again from the trunk, and to prevent
the recurrence of such a loss the artful rascal had thenceforth nipped
off the feet of all he caught, keeping them prisoners and eating them
one to-day and one to-morrow. To eat them all at once would have been
impossible. He had his health to think of.