The Camel and the Arab

AN ARAB CAMEL-DRIVER, after completing the loading of his Camel, asked
him which he would like best, to go up hill or down. The poor beast
replied, not without a touch of reason: "Why do you ask me? Is it that
the level way through the desert is closed?"

The Miller, His Son, and Their Ass

A MILLER and his son were driving their Ass to a neighboring fair to
sell him. They had not gone far when they met with a troop of women
collected round a well, talking and laughing. "Look there," cried one of
them, "did you ever see such fellows, to be trudging along the road on
foot when they might ride?" The old man hearing this, quickly made his
son mount the Ass, and continued to walk along merrily by his side.
Presently they came up to a group of old men in earnest debate. "There,"
said one of them, "it proves what I was a-saying. What respect is shown
to old age in these days? Do you see that idle lad riding while his old
father has to walk? Get down, you young scapegrace, and let the old man
rest his weary limbs." Upon this the old man made his son dismount, and
got up himself. In this manner they had not proceeded far when they
met a company of women and children: "Why, you lazy old fellow," cried
several tongues at once, "how can you ride upon the beast, while that
poor little lad there can hardly keep pace by the side of you?" The
good-natured Miller immediately took up his son behind him. They had now
almost reached the town. "Pray, honest friend," said a citizen, "is
that Ass your own?" "Yes," replied the old man. "O, one would not have
thought so," said the other, "by the way you load him. Why, you two
fellows are better able to carry the poor beast than he you." "Anything
to please you," said the old man; "we can but try." So, alighting with
his son, they tied the legs of the Ass together and with the help of a
pole endeavored to carry him on their shoulders over a bridge near the
entrance to the town. This entertaining sight brought the people in
crowds to laugh at it, till the Ass, not liking the noise nor the
strange handling that he was subject to, broke the cords that bound him
and, tumbling off the pole, fell into the river. Upon this, the old man,
vexed and ashamed, made the best of his way home again, convinced that
by endeavoring to please everybody he had pleased nobody, and lost his
Ass in the bargain.

The Crow and the Sheep

A TROUBLESOME CROW seated herself on th