aid the Kite, "do I see you with such a
rueful look?" "I seek," she replied, "for a mate suitable for me, and am
not able to find one." "Take me," returned the Kite; "I am much stronger
than you are." "Why, are you able to secure the means of living by your
plunder?" "Well, I have often caught and carried away an ostrich in my
talons." The Eagle, persuaded by these words, accepted him as her mate.
Shortly after the nuptials, the Eagle said: "Fly off, and bring me back
the ostrich you promised me." The Kite, soaring aloft into the air,
brought back the shabbiest possible mouse. "Is this," said the Eagle,
"the faithful fulfillment of your promise to me?" The Kite replied:
"That I might attain to your royal hand, there is nothing that I would
not have promised, however much I knew that I must fail in the
performance."

Promises of a suitor must be taken with caution.

The Dogs and the Hides.

[Illustration]

Some Dogs, famished with hunger, saw some cow-hides steeping in a river.
Not being able to reach them, they agreed to drink up the river; but it
fell out that they burst themselves with drinking long before they
reached the hides.

Attempt not impossibilities.

The Fisherman and the Little Fish

[Illustration]

A Fisherman who lived on the produce of his nets, one day caught a
single small fish as the result of his day's labor. The fish, panting
convulsively, thus entreated for his life: "O Sir, what good can I be
to you, and how little am I worth! I am not yet come to my full size.
Pray spare my life, and put me back into the sea. I shall soon become a
large fish, fit for the tables of the rich; and then you can catch me
again, and make a handsome profit of me." The fisherman replied: "I
should be a very simple fellow, if I were to forego my certain gain for
an uncertain profit."

[Illustration]

The Ass and his Purchaser.

A man wished to purchase an Ass, and agreed with its owner that he
should try him before he bought him. He took the Ass home, and put him
in the straw-yard with his other Asses, upon which he left all the
others, and joined himself at once to the most idle and the greatest
eater of them all. The man put a halter on him, and led him back to his
owner, saying: "I do not need a trial; I know that he will be just such
another as the one whom he chose for his companion."

A man is known by the company he keeps.

The Shepherd and the Sheep.

A Sheph