nd made a hearty breakfast on him.

_Beware of the crafty professions of the wicked_.

The Man of Luck and the Man of Pluck

A King in the East said to his Minister; "Do you believe in luck?"

"I do," said the Minister.

"Can you prove it?" said the King.

"Yes, I can," said the Minister.

So one night he tied up to the ceiling of a room a parcel containing
peas mixed with diamonds, and let in two men, one of whom believed in
luck and the other in human effort alone. The former quietly laid
himself down on the ground; the latter after a series of efforts
reached the parcel, and feeling in the dark the peas and the stones,
ate the former, one by one, and threw down the latter at his companion,
saying, "Here are the stones for your idleness." The man below
received them in his blanket.

In the morning the king and the minister came to the room and bade each
take to himself what he had got. The Man of Effort found he had
nothing beyond the peas he had eaten. The Man of Luck quietly walked
away with the diamonds.

The Minister said to the King: "Sire, there is such a thing as luck;
but it is as rare as peas mixed with diamonds. So I would say: '_Let
none hope to live by luck_.'"

The Fox and the Crabs

One day a Fox seated himself on a stone by a stream and wept aloud.
The Crabs in the holes around came up to him and said: "Friend, why are
you wailing so loud?"

"Alas!" said the Fox, "I have been turned by my kindred out of the
wood, and do not know what to do."

"Why were you turned out?" asked the Crabs in a tone of pity.

"Because," said the Fox, sobbing, "they said they should go out
to-night hunting Crabs by the stream, and I said it would be a pity to
lull such pretty little creatures."

"Where will you go hereafter?" said the Crabs.

"Where I can get work," said the Fox; "for I would not go to my kindred
again, come what would."

Then the Crabs held a meeting, and came to the conclusion that, as the
Fox had been thrown out by his kindred on their account, they could do
nothing better than engage his services to defend them. So they told
the Fox of their intention. He readily consented, and spent the whole
day in amusing the Crabs with all kinds of tricks.

Night came. The moon rose in full splendour. The Fox said: "Have you
ever been out for a walk in the moonlight?"

"Never, friend," said the Crabs; "we are such little creatures that we
are afraid of going far from our holes