me,"
said the Fox, and gave a hint that if the Tiger would wait a while in a
thicket close by, he would point out the men to him.

"May I depend upon your word?" said the Tiger.

"Certainly," said the Fox.

The hunters came, and, seeing the Fox in the net, said: "So you are
here!"

"Only on your account," said the Fox, in a whisper.

"How so?" said the men.

"Why, you were complaining you could not get at the Tiger that has been
devouring your cattle. I got into this net to-day that you may have
him. As I expected, he came to eat me up, and is in yonder thicket,"
said the Fox, and gave a hint that if they would take him out of the
trap he would point out the Tiger. "May we depend upon your word?"
said the men.

"Certainly," said the Fox, while the men went with him in a circle to
see that he did not escape.

Then the Fox said to the Tiger and the men: "Sir Tiger, here are the
men; gentlemen, here is the Tiger."

The men left the Fox and turned to the Tiger. The former beat a hasty
retreat to the wood, saying, "I have kept my promise to both; now you
may settle it between yourselves."

The Tiger exclaimed, when it was too late: "_Alas! what art for a
double part?_"

The Hare and the Pig

A Hare and a Pig once agreed to leap over a ditch. The Hare went a
great way, and fell into it, just short by an inch. The Pig went some
way and fell into it; but far behind the Hare. Yet they were eager to
know which of them leapt more, and was therefore the better animal.

So they said to a Fox, who had been watching the race: "Will you tell
us which of us is superior, and which inferior, in the race?"

The Fox said: "_Both in the ditch: can't say which!_"

The Peacock and the Fox

A Fox, who had an eye on a Peacock, was one day standing in a field
with his face turned up to the sky.

"Reynard," said the Peacock, "what have you been doing?"

"Oh, I have been counting the stars," said the Fox.

"How many are they?" said the Peacock.

"About as many as the fools on earth," said the Fox.

"But which do you think is the greater, the number of the stars or of
the fools?" asked the Peacock.

"If you put it so, I should say the fools are more by one," said the
Fox.

"Who is that one?" said the Peacock.

"Why, my own silly self!" said the Fox.

"How are you silly, Reynard?" questioned the Peacock.

"Why, was it not foolish of me to count the stars in the sky, when I
could have counted the star