the level way through the desert is closed?"

The Fighting Cocks and the Eagle.

[Illustration]

Two Game Cocks were fiercely fighting for the mastery of the farm-yard.
One at last put the other to flight. The vanquished Cock skulked away
and hid himself in a quiet corner. The conqueror, flying up to a high
wall, flapped his wings and crowed exultingly with all his might. An
Eagle sailing through the air pounced upon him, and carried him off in
his talons. The vanquished Cock immediately came out of his corner, and
ruled henceforth with undisputed mastery.

Pride goes before destruction.

The Boys and the Frogs.

Some boys, playing near a pond, saw a number of Frogs in the water, and
began to pelt them with stones. They killed several of them, when one of
the Frogs, lifting his head out of the water, cried out: "Pray stop, my
boys; what is sport to you is death to us."

What we do in sport often makes great trouble for others.

The Crab and its Mother.

A Crab said to her son: "Why do you walk so one-sided, my child? It is
far more becoming to go straight forward." The young Crab replied:
"Quite true, dear mother; and if you will show me the straight way, I
will promise to walk in it." The mother tried in vain, and submitted
without remonstrance to the reproof of her child.

Example is more powerful than precept.

The Wolf and the Shepherd.

[Illustration]

A Wolf followed a flock of sheep for a long time, and did not attempt to
injure one of them. The Shepherd at first stood on his guard against
him, as against an enemy, and kept a strict watch over his movements.
But when the Wolf, day after day, kept in the company of the sheep, and
did not make the slightest effort to seize them, the Shepherd began to
look upon him as a guardian of his flock rather than as a plotter of
evil against it; and when occasion called him one day into the city, he
left the sheep entirely in his charge. The Wolf, now that he had the
opportunity, fell upon the sheep, and destroyed the greater part of the
flock. The Shepherd, on his return, finding his flock destroyed,
exclaimed: "I have been rightly served; why did I trust my sheep to a
Wolf?"

[Illustration]

An evil mind will show in evil action, sooner or later.

The Man and the Lion.

A Man and a Lion traveled together through the forest. They soon began
to boast of their respective superiority to each other in strength and
pr