a Horse into an Ass."

He who slights his friends when they are not needed must not expect them
to serve him when he needs them.

The Dog and the Hare.

A Hound, having started a Hare on the hill-side, pursued her for some
distance, at one time biting her with his teeth as if he would take her
life, and at another time fawning upon her, as if in play with another
dog. The Hare said to him: "I wish you would act sincerely by me, and
show yourself in your true colors. If you are a friend, why do you bite
me so hard? If an enemy, why do you fawn on me?"

They are no friends whom you know not whether to trust or to distrust.

The Fawn and his Mother.

[Illustration]

A young Fawn once said to his mother: "You are larger than a dog, and
swifter, and more used to running; why, then, O Mother! are you always
in such a terrible fright of the hounds?" She smiled, and said: "I know
full well, my son, that all you say is true. I have the advantages you
mention, but yet when I hear the bark of a single dog I feel ready to
faint."

No arguments will give courage to the coward.

The Lark and her Young Ones.

[Illustration]

A Lark had made her nest in the young green wheat. The brood had almost
grown, when the owner of the field, overlooking his crop, said: "I must
send to all my neighbors to help me with my harvest." One of the young
Larks heard him, and asked his mother to what place they should move for
safety. "There is no occasion to move yet, my son," she replied. The
owner of the field came a few days later, and said: "I will come myself
to-morrow, and will get in the harvest." Then the Lark said to her
brood: "It is time now to be off--he no longer trusts to his friends,
but will reap the field himself."

Self-help is the best help.

The Bowman and the Lion.

[Illustration]

A very skillful Bowman went to the mountains in search of game. All the
beasts of the forest fled at his approach. The Lion alone challenged him
to combat. The Bowman immediately let fly an arrow; and said to the
Lion: "I send thee my messenger, that from him thou mayest learn what I
myself shall be when I assail thee." The Lion, thus wounded, rushed,
away in great fear, and on a Fox exhorting him to be of good courage,
and not to run away at the first attack, he replied: "You counsel me in
vain, for if he sends so fearful a messenger, how shall I abide the
attack of the man himself?"

A man who can s