and
welfare of all the other parts as they did to his.

MORAL.

Men are dependent upon their fellow-creatures, and it is foolish
to expect we can do without the help of others.

FABLE LVI.

THE CUR, THE HORSE, AND THE SHEPHERD'S DOG.

A VILLAGE Cur, of snappish race,
The pertest puppy in the place,
Imagined that his treble throat
Was blessed with music's sweetest note;
In the mid road he basking lay,
The yelping nuisance of the way;
For not a creature passed along,
But had a sample of his song.

Soon as the trotting steed he hears,
He starts, he cocks his dapper ears;
Away he scours, assaults his hoof;
Now near him snarls, now barks aloof;
With shrill impertinence attends;
Nor leaves him till the village ends.

It chanced, upon his evil day,
A Pad came pacing down the way;
The Cur, with never-ceasing tongue,
Upon the passing traveller sprung.
The Horse, from scorn provoked to ire,
Flung backward; rolling in the mire,
The Puppy howled, and bleeding lay;
The Pad in peace pursued his way.

A Shepherd's Dog, who saw the deed,
Detesting the vexatious breed,
Bespoke him thus: "When coxcombs prate,
They kindle wrath, contempt, or hate;
Thy teasing tongue, had judgment tied,
Thou hadst not like a Puppy died."

MORAL.

Too late the forward youth will find
That jokes are sometimes paid in kind;
Or, if they canker in the breast,
He makes a foe who makes a jest.

FABLE LVII.

THE JACKDAW AND THE EAGLE.

An Eagle flew down from the top of a high rock, and settled upon
the back of a lamb, and then, instantly flying up into the air
again, bore his bleating prize aloft in his talons. A Jackdaw,
who sat upon an elm, and beheld his exploit, resolved to imitate
it. So, flying upon the back of a ram, and entangling his claws
in the wool, he fell a-chattering and attempting to fly; by which
means he drew the observation of the shepherd upon him, who,
finding his feet hampered in the fleece of the ram, easily took
him, and gave him to his boys for their sport and diversion,
saying, "The silly bird thought he was an Eagle; but, no doubt,
by this time he has found out he is but a Jackdaw."

MORAL.

A false estimate of our own abilities ever exposes us to
ridicule, and often to danger.

[Illustration: THE JACKDAW AND THE EAGLE.]

FABLE LVIII.

THE