warm terms, and lamented his
own hard fate. Just as they were beginning to eat, some one opened the
door, and they both ran off squeaking, as fast as they could, to a hole
so narrow that two could only find room in it by squeezing. They had
scarcely again begun their repast when some one else entered to take
something out of a cupboard, on which the two Mice, more frightened than
before, ran away and hid themselves. At last the Country Mouse, almost
famished, thus addressed his friend: "Although you have prepared for me
so dainty a feast, I must leave you to enjoy it by yourself. It is
surrounded by too many dangers to please me."

[Illustration]

Better a little in safety, than an abundance surrounded by danger.

The Monkey and the Dolphin.

[Illustration]

A Sailor, bound on a long voyage, took with him a Monkey to amuse him
while on shipboard. As he sailed off the coast of Greece, a violent
tempest arose, in which the ship was wrecked, and he, his Monkey and all
the crew were obliged to swim for their lives. A Dolphin saw the Monkey
contending with the waves, and supposing him to be a man (whom he is
always said to befriend), came and placed himself under him, to convey
him on his back in safety to the shore. When the Dolphin arrived with
his burden in sight of land not far from Athens, he demanded of the
Monkey if he were an Athenian, who answered that he was, and that he was
descended from one of the noblest families in that city.

The Dolphin then inquired if he knew the Piraeus (the famous harbor of
Athens). The Monkey, supposing that a man was meant, and being obliged
to support his previous lie, answered that he knew him very well, and
that he was an intimate friend, who would, no doubt, be very glad to see
him. The Dolphin, indignant at these falsehoods, dipped the Monkey under
the water, and drowned him.

He who once begins to tell falsehoods is obliged to tell others to make
them appear true, and, sooner or later, they will get him into trouble.

The Game-cocks and the Partridge.

A Man had two Game-cocks in his poultry yard. One day, by chance, he
fell in with a tame Partridge for sale. He purchased it, and brought it
home that it might be reared with his Game-cocks. On its being put into
the poultry-yard, they struck at it, and followed it about, so that the
Partridge was grievously troubled in mind, and supposed that he was
thus badly treated because he was a stranger. Not long a