ouse when you lay deserted, and licked your body, and took the
fever which you had into my veins; and this wound which you see, I
received from a crocodile as I was swimming across on my way back. But
you received me with scorn, and turned away your face in disgust. The
fever is gone, and this wound (as you see) is healed; but the wound in
my heart can never heal. You are no true friend; and from henceforth our
ways lie apart."

The man was ashamed of his unkindness, but it was too late, for, as the
poet says--

"Who snaps the thread of friendship, never more
Can join it as it once was joined before."

[Illustration]

The Cat and the Parrot

ONCE upon a time, a Cat and a Parrot had joint lease of a certain piece
of land, which they tilled together.

One day the Cat said to the Parrot, "Come, friend, let us go to the
field."

Said the Parrot, "I can't come now, because I am whetting my bill on the
branch of a mango-tree."

So the Cat went alone, and ploughed the field. When the field was
ploughed, the Cat came to the Parrot again, and said--

"Come, friend, let us sow the corn."

Said the Parrot, "I can't come now, because I am whetting my beak on the
branch of a mango-tree."

So the Cat went alone, and sowed the corn. The corn took root, the corn
sprouted, it put forth the blade, and the ear, and the ripe corn in the
ear. Then again the Cat came to the Parrot, and said--

"Come, friend, let us go and gather the harvest."

Said the Parrot, "I can't come now, because I am whetting my beak on the
branch of a mango-tree."

[Illustration]

So the Cat went alone, and gathered the harvest. She put it away in
barns, and made ready for threshing. When all was ready for the
threshing, again the Cat came to the Parrot, and said--

"Come, friend, let us thresh the corn."

Said the Parrot, "I can't come now, because I am whetting my beak on the
branch of a mango-tree."

So the Cat went, and threshed all the corn alone. Then the Cat came back
to the Parrot, and said--

"Come, friend, let us go and winnow the grain from the chaff."

Said the Parrot, "I can't come now, because I am whetting my beak on the
branch of a mango-tree."

So the Cat winnowed the grain from the chaff alone. Then she came back
once again to the Parrot, and said--

"Come, friend, the grain is all winnowed and sifted; come and divide it
between us."

"Certainly," said the Parrot, and came at once. You see