into one of the Lion's nostrils! And there he began to
sting, sting, sting. The Lion wondered, and thundered, and blundered--but
the Gnat went on stinging; he foamed, and he moaned, and he groaned--still
the Gnat went on stinging; he rubbed his head on the ground in agony, he
swirled his tail in furious passion, he roared, he spluttered, he sniffed,
he snuffed--and still the Gnat went on stinging.

"O my poor nose, my nose, my nose!" the Lion began to moan. "Come down,
come DOWN, come DOWN! My nose, my NOSE, my NOSE!! You're King of the
Forest, you're King, you're King--only come down. My nose, my NOSE, my
NOSE!"

So at last the Gnat flew out from the Lion's nostril and went back to his
waving grass-blade, while the Lion slunk away into the depths of the
forest with his tail between his legs--_beaten_, and by a tiny Gnat!

"What a fine fellow am I, to be sure!" exclaimed the Gnat, as he proudly
plumed his wings. "I've beaten a lion--a lion! Dear me, I ought to have
been King long ago, I'm so clever, so big, so strong--_oh!_"

The Gnat's frightened cry was caused by finding himself entangled in some
silky sort of threads. While gloating over his victory, the wind had
risen, and his grass-blade had swayed violently to and fro unnoticed by
him. A stronger gust than usual had bent the blade downward close to the
ground, and then something caught it and held it fast and with it the
victorious Gnat. Oh, the desperate struggles he made to get free! Alas! he
became more entangled than ever. You can guess what it was--a spider's
web, hung out from the overhanging branch of a tree.
Then--flipperty-flopperty, flipperty-flopperty, flop, flip, flop--down his
stairs came cunning Father Spider and quickly gobbled up the little Gnat
for his supper, and that was the end of him.

A strong Lion--and what overcame him? _A Gnat._

A clever Gnat--and what overcame him? _A Spider's web!_ He who had beaten
the strong lion had been overcome by the subtle snare of a spider's
thread.

ESPECIALLY FOR CLASSES II. AND III.

THE CAT AND THE PARROT

Once there was a cat, and a parrot. And they had agreed to ask each other
to dinner, turn and turn about: first the cat should ask the parrot, then
the parrot should invite the cat, and so on. It was the cat's turn first.

Now the cat was very mean. He provided nothing at all for dinner except a
pint of milk, a little slice of fish, and a biscuit. The parrot was too
polite to complain, b