again
but with their equals.

MORAL.

Be certain that those who have great power are honest before you
place yourselves in their hands, or you will be deprived of your
just rights.

FABLE V.

THE DOVE AND THE ANT.

The Ant, compelled by thirst, went to drink in a clear, purling
rivulet; but the current, with its circling eddy, snatched her
away, and carried her down the stream. A Dove, pitying her
distressed condition, cropped a branch from a neighbouring tree
and let it fall into the water, by means of which the Ant saved
herself and got ashore. Not long after, a Fowler, having a design
against the Dove, planted his nets in due order, without the
bird's observing what he was about; which the Ant perceiving,
just as he was going to put his design into execution, she bit
his heel, and made him give so sudden a start, that the Dove took
the alarm, and flew away.

MORAL.

Kindness to others seldom fails of its reward; and none is so
weak that he may not be able in some fashion to repay it. Let us
show kindness without looking for a return, but a blessing will
surely follow.

FABLE VI.

THE FOX WITHOUT A TAIL.

A FOX being caught in a steel trap by his tail, was glad to compound
for his escape with the loss of it; but on coming abroad into the
world, began to be so sensible of the disgrace such a defect would
bring upon him, that he almost wished he had died rather than left
it behind him. However, to make the best of a bad matter, he formed
a project in his head to call an assembly of the rest of the Foxes,
and propose it for their imitation as a fashion which would be very
agreeable and becoming. He did so, and made a long harangue upon the
unprofitableness of tails in general, and endeavoured chiefly to
show the awkwardness and inconvenience of a Fox's tail in
particular; adding that it would be both more graceful and more
expeditious to be altogether without them, and that, for his part,
what he had only imagined and conjectured before, he now found by
experience; for that he never enjoyed himself so well, nor found
himself so easy as he had done since he cut off his tail. He said no
more, but looked about with a brisk air to see what proselytes he
had gained; when a sly old Fox in the company, who understood trap,
answered him, with a leer, "I believe you may have found a
conveniency in parting with your tail; and when we are in the same
circumstances, perhaps we may do so too."