ever hear the old story about the foolish Frogs? The Frogs in
a certain swamp decided that they needed a king; they had always got
along perfectly well without one, but they suddenly made up their minds
that a king they must have. They sent a messenger to Jove and begged
him to send a king to rule over them.

Jove saw how stupid they were, and sent a king who could not harm them:
he tossed a big log into the middle of the pond.

At the splash the Frogs were terribly frightened, and dove into their
holes to hide from King Log. But after a while, when they saw that the
king never moved, they got over their fright and went and sat on him.
And as soon as they found he really could not hurt them they began to
despise him; and finally they sent another messenger to Jove to ask for
a new king.

Jove sent an eel.

The Frogs were much pleased and a good deal frightened when King Eel
came wriggling and swimming among them. But as the days went on, and
the eel was perfectly harmless, they stopped being afraid; and as soon
as they stopped fearing King Eel they stopped respecting him.

Soon they sent a third messenger to Jove, and begged that they might
have a better king,--a king who was worth while.

It was too much; Jove was angry at their stupidity at last. "I will
give you a king such as you deserve!" he said; and he sent them a Stork.

As soon as the Frogs came to the surface to greet the new king, King
Stork caught them in his long bill and gobbled them up. One after
another they came bobbing up, and one after another the stork ate them.
He was indeed a king worthy of them!

THE SUN AND THE WIND

The Sun and the Wind once had a quarrel as to which was the stronger.
Each believed himself to be the more powerful. While they were arguing
they saw a traveler walking along the country highway, wearing a great
cloak.

"Here is a chance to test our strength," said the Wind; "let us see
which of us is strong enough to make that traveler take off his cloak;
the one who can do that shall be acknowledged the more powerful."

"Agreed," said the Sun.

Instantly the Wind began to blow; he puffed and tugged at the man's
cloak, and raised a storm of hail and rain, to beat at it. But the
colder it grew and the more it stormed, the tighter the traveler held
his cloak around him. The Wind could not get it off.

Now it was the Sun's turn. He shone with all his beams on the man's
shoulders. As it grew hotter and hotter,