tagem. She hung by her hinder legs on a peg which was fixed in the wall, and appeared as if she was dead, hoping by this means to entice the mice within her reach. She had not been long in this posture before a cunning old mouse peeped over the edge of the shelf, and spoke thus: "Aha! my good friend, are you there? There may you long be! I would not trust myself with you, though your skin were stuffed with straw."

MORAL.-Those who deceive once are not to be trusted a second time.

2. The Travellers and the Bear.

Two men who were travelling together through a forest, promised to stand by each other in any danger they might encounter on the way. They had not gone far before a bear came rushing towards them out of a thicket. Upon this, one of them, being light and nimble, climbed up a tree; the other, falling flat on his face, and holding his breath, lay quite still. The bear immediately came up and smelled him ; but supposing him to be a dead carcase, went back into the wood without doing him the least harm. When all was over, his friend came down from the tree, and with a pleasant smile, asked him what the bear had said to him; " for," says he, "I noticed that he put his mouth very close to your ear!" Why," replies the other, "he charged me to take care for the future not to place confidence in cowards like you."

66

MORAL.-Nothing is so common as professions of friendship; but few things are so rare as a trusty friend.

3. The Ant and the Grasshopper.

In the winter season, a commonwealth of ants were busily employed in the management and preservation of their corn, which they exposed to the air in heaps, round about the avenues of their little country habitation. A grasshopper, who had chanced to outlive the summer, and was ready to starve with cold and hunger, approached them with great humility, and begged that they would relieve his necessity with

one grain of wheat or rye. One of the ants asked him, how he had disposed of his time in summer, that he had not taken pains and laid in a stock as they had done. "Alas! gentlemen," said he, "I passed away the time merrily and pleasantly in drinking, singing, and dancing, and never once thought of winter." "If that is the case," replied the ant, "all I have to say is, that those who drink, sing, and dance in the summer, must starve in the winter."

MORAL.-We should never lose any opportunity of providing against the future evils and accidents of life.

4. The Swallow and other Birds.

A swallow, observing a farmer employed in sowing hemp, called the little birds together, informed them what he was about, and told them, that hemp was the material from which the nets, so fatal to the feathered race, were composed, advising them to join unanimously in picking it up, in order to prevent the consequences. The birds, either not believing his information, or neglecting his advice, gave themselves no trouble about the matter. In a little time, the hemp appeared above ground. The friendly swallow, again addressing himself to them, told them that it was not yet too late, provided they would immediately set about the work, before the seeds had taken too deep root. But they still neglecting his advice, he forsook their society, repaired for safety to towns and cities, and there built his habitation and kept his residence. One day, as he was skimming along the street, he happened to see a number of those very birds, imprisoned in a cage on the shoulders of a bird-catcher. "Unhappy wretches!" said he, you now suffer the punishment of your former neglect.” Thus, those who have no foresight of their own, and who despise the wholesome admonitions of their friends, deserve the mischiefs which their own obstinacy or negligence brings upon their heads.

66

5. Caius Gracchus and his Two Friends.

Caius Gracchus, who was the idol of the Roman people, having carried his regard for the lower orders so far as to

draw upon himself the resentment of the nobility, an open rupture ensued, and the two extremities of Rome resembled two camps, Opimius, the Consul on one side, and Gracchus, with his friend Fulvius, on the other. A battle ensued, in which the consul met with a more vigorous resistance than he expected. He therefore proclaimed an amnesty for all those who should lay down their arms; and, at the same time, promised to pay their weight in gold for the heads of Fulvius and Gracchus. This proclamation had the desired effect. The populace deserted their leaders; Fulvius was taken and beheaded; and Gracchus, on the advice of his two friends, Licinius Crassus, his brother-in-law, and Pomponius, a Roman knight, determined to flee from the city. On his way he passed through the centre of the town and reached the bridge Publicius, where his enemies, who pursued him close, would have overtaken and seized him if his two friends had not opposed their fury. They saw the danger he was in, and determined to save his life at the expense of their own. They guarded the bridge against all the consular troops till Gracchus was out of their reach; but, at length, being overpowered by numbers and covered with wounds, they both expired on the bridge which they had so valiantly defended.

6. Francis II. and his Famishing Subjects.

An arm of the Danube separates the city of Vienna from a suburban part called Leopold-Stadt. A thaw inundated this suburb, and the ice carried away the bridge of communication with the capital. The population of Leopold-Stadt began to be in the greatest distress for want of provisions. A number of boats were collected and loaded with bread; but no one felt hardy enough to risk the passage, which was rendered extremely dangerous by large bodies of ice. Francis II., who was then emperor, stood at the water's edge. He begged, exhorted, threatened, and promised the highest recompenses; but no one ventured to cross. On the opposite shore, his subjects, famishing with hunger, stretched forth their hands and supplicated relief. The monarch immediately leaped singly into a boat loaded with bread, and applied him

self to the oars. The example of the sovereign, sudden as electricity, inflamed the spectators, who threw themselves in crowds into the boats. They encountered the sea with success and gained the suburbs, just as their intrepid monarch, with the tear of pity in his eye, held out the bread he had conveyed across the water at the risk of his life.

7. Cressin's Defence.

Pliny tells us of one Cressin, who so tilled and manured a piece of ground, that it yielded him fruits in abundance, while the lands around him remained extremely poor and barren. His simple neighbours could not account for this wonderful difference on any other supposition than that of his working by enchantment; and they accordingly proceeded to arraign him for his supposed sorcery before the justice seat. "How is it," said they, "unless it be that he enchants us, that he can contrive to draw such a revenue from his inheritance, while we, with equal lands, are wretched and miserable?" Cressin was his own advocate. His case was one which required neither ability to expound, nor language to recommend. “Behold,” said he, "this comely damsel! She is my daughter, my fellow-labourer. Behold, too, these implements of husbandry, these carts, and these oxen! Go with me, moreover, to my fields, and behold how they are tilled, how manured, how weeded, how watered, how fenced! And when you have beheld all these things, you will have seen all the art, the charms, the magic which Cressin has used." The judges, on hearing this defence, pronounced his acquittal, and passed a high eulogium on that industry which had so innocently made him an object of suspicion and envy to his neighbours.

8. The Earl and the Farmer.

A farmer called on the Earl Fitzwilliam, to represent that his crop of wheat had been seriously injured in a field adjoining to a certain wood where his lordship's hounds had, during the winter, frequently met to hunt. He stated that the young wheat had been so cut up and destroyed, that, in some parts, he could not hope for any produce. Well, my

66

friend," said his lordship, "I am aware that we have frequently met in that field, and that we have done considerable injury. If you can procure an estimate of the loss you have sustained, I will repay you." The farmer replied, that, anticipating his lordship's consideration and kindness, he had requested a friend to assist him in estimating the damage; and they thought that, as the crop seemed quite destroyed, L.50 would not more than repay him. The Earl immediately gave him the money. As the harvest, however, approached, the wheat grew, and in those parts of the field which were most trampled, the corn was strongest and most luxuriant. The farmer went again to his lordship, and being introduced, said, "I have come, my lord, respecting the field of wheat adjoining such a wood." His lordship immediately recollected the circumstance. Well, my friend, did I not allow you sufficient to remunerate you for your loss?" "Yes, my lord; but I find that I have sustained no loss at all; for, where the horses had most cut up the land, the crop is most promising. I have therefore brought back the L.50." exclaimed the venerable Earl, "this is what I like; this is as it should be between man and man." He then went into another room, and returning with a check for L.100, presented it to the farmer, saying: "Take care of this; and when your eldest son is of age, present it to him, and tell him the occasion that produced it.”

66

"Ah!"