a hunter
with four dogs. The cat sprang nimbly up a tree, and sat down at the top
of it, where the branches and foliage quite concealed her. 'Open your
sack, Mr Fox, open your sack,' cried the cat to him, but the dogs had
already seized him, and were holding him fast. 'Ah, Mr Fox,' cried the
cat. 'You with your hundred arts are left in the lurch! Had you been
able to climb like me, you would not have lost your life.'

THE FOUR CLEVER BROTHERS

'Dear children,' said a poor man to his four sons, 'I have nothing to
give you; you must go out into the wide world and try your luck. Begin
by learning some craft or another, and see how you can get on.' So the
four brothers took their walking-sticks in their hands, and their little
bundles on their shoulders, and after bidding their father goodbye, went
all out at the gate together. When they had got on some way they came
to four crossways, each leading to a different country. Then the eldest
said, 'Here we must part; but this day four years we will come back
to this spot, and in the meantime each must try what he can do for
himself.'

So each brother went his way; and as the eldest was hastening on a man
met him, and asked him where he was going, and what he wanted. 'I am
going to try my luck in the world, and should like to begin by learning
some art or trade,' answered he. 'Then,' said the man, 'go with me, and
I will teach you to become the cunningest thief that ever was.' 'No,'
said the other, 'that is not an honest calling, and what can one look
to earn by it in the end but the gallows?' 'Oh!' said the man, 'you need
not fear the gallows; for I will only teach you to steal what will be
fair game: I meddle with nothing but what no one else can get or care
anything about, and where no one can find you out.' So the young man
agreed to follow his trade, and he soon showed himself so clever, that
nothing could escape him that he had once set his mind upon.

The second brother also met a man, who, when he found out what he was
setting out upon, asked him what craft he meant to follow. 'I do not
know yet,' said he. 'Then come with me, and be a star-gazer. It is a
noble art, for nothing can be hidden from you, when once you understand
the stars.' The plan pleased him much, and he soon became such a skilful
star-gazer, that when he had served out his time, and wanted to leave
his master, he gave him a glass, and said, 'With this you can see all
that is passing in the sky