grant us the gift of speech for a year; and
even then I fear, at the rate you are going, you will not get through
half your story. One thing I beg to remark to you, of which you will see
proof when I relate my own adventures; and that is, that some stories
are pleasing in themselves, and others from the manner in which they are
told; I mean that there are some which give satisfaction, though they
are told without preambles and verbal adornments; while others require
to be decked in that way and set off by expressive play of features,
hands, and voice; whereby, instead of flat and insipid, they become
pointed and agreeable. Do not forget this hint, but profit by it in what
you are about to say.

_Berg._ I will do so, if I can, and if I am not hindered by the great
temptation I feel to speak; though, indeed, it appears to me that I
shall have the greatest difficulty in constraining myself to moderation.

_Scip._ Be wary with your tongue, for from that member flow the greatest
ills of human life.

_Berg._ Well, then, to go on with my story, my master taught me to carry
a basket in my mouth, and to defend it against any one who should
attempt to take it from me. He also made me acquainted with the house in
which his mistress lived, and thereby spared her servant the trouble of
coming to the slaughter-house, for I used to carry to her the pieces of
meat he had stolen over night. Once as I was going along on this errand
in the gray of the morning, I heard some one calling me by name from a
window. Looking up I saw an extremely pretty girl; she came down to the
street door, and began to call me again. I went up to her to see what
she wanted of me; and what was it but to take away the meat I was
carrying in the basket and put an old clog in its place? "Be off with
you," she said, when she had done so; "and tell Nicholas the Pugnosed,
your master, not to put trust in brutes." I might easily have made her
give up what she had taken from me; but I would not put a cruel tooth on
those delicate white hands.

_Scip._ You did quite right; for it is the prerogative of beauty always
to be held in respect.

_Berg._ Well, I went back to my master without the meat and with the old
clog. It struck him that I had come back very soon, and seeing the clog,
he guessed the trick, snatched up a knife, and flung it at me; and if I
had not leaped aside, you would not now be listening to my story. I
took to my heels, and was off like a shot be