an that owned a Goose. "Surely
a Goose which can lay such eggs as those must have a gold mine inside
her."

So he killed the Goose and cut her open, but found that she was just like
any other goose. Moreover, on examining the eggs that she had laid he
found they were just like any other eggs.

The Wolf and the Feeding Goat

A Wolf saw a Goat feeding at the summit of a rock, where he could not get
at her.

"Why do you stay up there in that sterile place and go hungry?" said the
Wolf. "Down here where I am the broken-bottle vine cometh up as a
flower, the celluloid collar blossoms as the rose, and the tin-can tree
brings forth after its kind."

"That is true, no doubt," said the Goat, "but how about the circus-poster
crop? I hear that it failed this year down there."

The Wolf, perceiving that he was being chaffed, went away and resumed his
duties at the doors of the poor.

Jupiter and the Birds

Jupiter commanded all the birds to appear before him, so that he might
choose the most beautiful to be their king. The ugly jackdaw, collecting
all the fine feathers which had fallen from the other birds, attached
them to his own body and appeared at the examination, looking very gay.
The other birds, recognising their own borrowed plumage, indignantly
protested, and began to strip him.

"Hold!" said Jupiter; "this self-made bird has more sense than any of
you. He is your king."

The Lion and the Mouse

A Lion who had caught a Mouse was about to kill him, when the Mouse said:

"If you will spare my life, I will do as much for you some day."

The Lion, good-naturedly let him go. It happened shortly afterwards that
the Lion was caught by some hunters and bound with cords. The Mouse,
passing that way, and seeing that his benefactor was helpless, gnawed off
his tail.

The Old Man and His Sons

An Old Man, afflicted with a family of contentious Sons, brought in a
bundle of sticks and asked the young men to break it. After repeated
efforts they confessed that it could not be done. "Behold," said the Old
Man, "the advantage of unity; as long as these sticks are in alliance
they are invincible, but observe how feeble they are individually."

Pulling a single stick from the bundle, he broke it easily upon the head
of the eldest Son, and this he repeated until all had been served.

The Crab and His Son

A Logical Crab said to his Son, "Why do you not walk straight forward?
You