best,'

Else comes the rebuke--

'Pity them that ask thy pity: who art thou to stint thy hoard,
When the holy moon shines equal on the leper and the lord!'

And that other, too,

'When thy gate is roughly fastened, and the asker turns away,
Thence he bears thy good deeds with him, and his sins on thee doth lay

For verily,

'In the house the husband ruleth, men the Brahmans "master" call;
Agni is the Twice-born Master--but the guest is lord of all,'

"To these weighty words Grey-pate answered,

'Yes! but cats like meat, and there are young birds here, and therefore
I said, go,'

'Sir,' said the Cat (and as he spoke he touched the ground, and then his
two ears, and called on Krishna to witness to his words), 'I that have
overcome passion, and practised the moon-penance, know the Scriptures;
and howsoever they contend, in this primal duty of abstaining from
injury they are unanimous. Which of them sayeth not--

'He who does and thinks no wrong--
He who suffers, being strong--
He whose harmlessness men know--
Unto Swerga such doth go.'

"And so, winning the old Vulture's confidence, Long-ear, the Cat,
entered the hollow tree and lived there. And day after day he stole away
some of the nestlings, and brought them down to the hollow to devour.
Meantime the parent birds, whose little ones were being eaten, made an
inquiry after them in all quarters; and the Cat, discovering this fact,
slipped out from the hollow, and made his escape. Afterwards, when the
birds came to look closely, they found the bones of their young ones in
the hollow of the tree where Grey-pate lived; and the birds at once
concluded that their nestlings had been killed and eaten by the old
Vulture, whom they accordingly executed. That is my story, and why I
warned you against unknown acquaintances."

"Sir," said the Jackal, with some warmth, "on the first day of your
encountering the Deer you also were of unknown family and character: how
is it, then, that your friendship with him grows daily greater? True, I
am only Small-wit, the Jackal, but what says the saw?--

"In the land where no wise men are, men of little wit are lords;
And the castor-oil's a tree, where no tree else its shade affords."

The Deer is my friend; condescend, sir, to be my friend also."

'Oh!' broke in the Deer, 'why so much talking? We'll all live together,
and be friendly and happy--

'Foe is friend, and friend