ing over him while he slept, awoke him.
Laying his paw upon one of them, he was about to crush him, but the
Mouse implored his mercy in such moving terms that he let him go.

Now it happened that sometime afterward the Lion was caught in a net
laid by some hunters, and, unable to free himself, made the forest
resound with his roars. The Mouse, recognizing the voice of his
preserver, ran to the spot, and with his little sharp teeth gnawed the
ropes asunder and set the Lion free.

The Swallow and Other Birds

A Swallow, observing a Husbandman employed in sowing hemp, called the
little Birds together and informed them of what the farmer was about.
He told them that hemp was the material from which the nets, so fatal
to the feathered race, were composed; and advised them to join
unanimously in picking it up in order to prevent the consequences.

The Birds, either disbelieving his information or neglecting his
advice, gave themselves no trouble about the matter. In a little time
the hemp appeared above the ground, when the friendly Swallow again
addressed himself to them, and told them it was not yet too late,
provided they would immediately set about the work, before the seeds
had taken too deep root. But as they still rejected his advice, he
forsook their society, repaired for safety to towns and cities, there
built his habitation and kept his residence.

One day as he was skimming along the streets he happened to see a large
parcel of those very Birds imprisoned in a cage on the shoulders of a
bird-catcher.

"Unhappy wretches," said he. "You now feel punishment for your former
neglect; but those who, having no foresight of their own, despise the
wholesome admonition of their friends, deserve the mischief which their
own obstinacy or negligence brings upon their heads."

The Fox and the Crow

A Fox once saw a Crow fly off with a piece of cheese in its beak and
settle on a branch of a tree. "That's for me, as I am a Fox," said
Master Reynard, and he walked up to the foot of the tree. "Good-day,
Mistress Crow," he cried. "How well you are looking to-day; how glossy
your feathers, how bright your eye. I feel sure your voice must
surpass that of other birds, just as your figure does; let me hear but
one song from you that I may greet you as the Queen of Birds."

The Crow lifted up her head and began to caw her best, but the moment
she opened her mouth the piece of cheese fell to the ground, only to be