advice, and let the bird escape; but it
had scarcely regained its liberty, when, from a high tree opposite, it
exclaimed:

"What a silly man! The idea of letting me escape! If you only knew what
you have lost! But it is too late now."

"What have I lost?" the man asked, angrily.

"Why, if you had killed me, as you intended, you would have found inside
of me a huge pearl, as large as a goose's egg, and you would have been a
wealthy man forever."

"Dear little bird," the man said in his blandest tones; "sweet little
bird, I will not harm you. Only come down to me, and I will treat you as
if you were my own child, and give you fruit and flowers all day. I
assure you of this most sacredly."

But the bird shook its head sagely, and replied: "What a silly man, to
forget so soon the advice which was given him in all seriousness. I told
you not to cry over spilt milk, and here you are, worrying over what has
happened. I urged you not to desire the unattainable, and now you wish
to capture me again. And, finally, I asked you not to believe what is
impossible, and you are rashly imagining that I have a huge pearl inside
of me, when a goose's egg is larger than my whole body. You ought to
learn your lessons better in the future, if you would become wise,"
added the bird, as with another twist of its head it flew away, and was
lost in the distance.

191

A classic collection of short stories from the
ancient Hebrew sages is the little book,
_Hebrew Tales_, published in London in 1826 by
the noted Jewish scholar Hyman Hurwitz
(1770-1844). A modern handy edition of this
book (about sixty tales) is published as Vol.
II of the Library of Jewish Classics. Of
special interest is the fact that it contained
three stories by the poet Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, who had published them first in his
periodical, _The Friend_. Coleridge was much
interested in Hebrew literature, and especially
fond of speaking in parables, as those who know
"The Ancient Mariner" will readily recall. The
following is one of the three stories referred
to, and it had prefixed to it the significant
text, "The Lord helpeth man and beast." (Psalm
XXXVI, 6.)

THE LORD HELPETH MAN AND BEAST

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

During his march to conquer the world, Alexander, the Macedonian, came
to a people in Africa w