my mercy! How shall I punish
your impudence?"

"Sire," said the Fly, "if you would pardon me now, and let me live, I
shall be able to show ere long how grateful I am to you."

"Indeed!" said the Lion; "who ever heard of a Gadfly helping a Lion?
But still I admire your presence of mind and grant your life."

Some time after, the Lion, having made great havoc on the cattle of a
neighbouring village, was snoring away in his den after a heavy meal.
The village hunters approached with the object of surrounding him and
putting an end to his depredations.

The Fly saw them, and hurrying into the den, bit the Lion. He started
up with a roar as before, and cried: "Villain, you will get no pardon
this time!"

"Sire," said the Fly, "the village hunters are on their way to your
den; you can't tarry a moment here without being surrounded and killed."

"Saviour of my life!" cried the lion as he ran up the mountain.
"_There is nothing like forgiving, for it enables the humblest to help
the highest_."

The Sunling

In the good old days a Clown in the East, on a visit to a city kinsman,
while at dinner pointed to a burning candle and asked what it was. The
city man said, in jest, it was a Sunling, or one of the children of the
sun.

The Clown thought that it was something rare; so he waited for an
opportunity, and hid it in a chest of drawers close by. Soon the chest
caught fire, then the curtains by its side, then the room, then the
whole house.

After the flames had been put down, the city man and the Clown went
into the burnt building to see what remained. The Clown turned over
the embers of the chest of drawers. The city man asked what he was
seeking for. The Clown said: "It is in this chest that I hid the
bright Sunling; I wish to know if he has survived the flames."

"Alas," said the city man, who now found out the cause of all the
mischief, "_Never jest with fools!_"

The Despot and the Wag

A Despot in the East wished to have a great name as a very munificent
prince, so he gave large presents to every one of note that came to his
court, but at the same time his officers had secret orders to waylay
the recipients of his gifts and recover them.

In this manner many a man had been rewarded and plundered. Once a wag
came to court, and amused every one by his drolleries. The King gave
him a great many presents, including a horse. After taking leave of
the King and his courtiers, the Wag bundled u