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At a country fair there was a Buffoon who made all the people
laugh by imitating the cries of various animals. He finished off
by squeaking so like a pig that the spectators thought that he had
a porker concealed about him. But a Countryman who stood by said:
"Call that a pig's squeak! Nothing like it. You give me till
tomorrow and I will show you what it's like." The audience
laughed, but next day, sure enough, the Countryman appeared on the
stage, and putting his head down squealed so hideously that the
spectators hissed and threw stones at him to make him stop. "You
fools!" he cried, "see what you have been hissing," and held up a
little pig whose ear he had been pinching to make him utter the
squeals.

Men often applaud an imitation and hiss the real thing.



The Old Woman and the Wine-Jar


You must know that sometimes old women like a glass of wine.
One of this sort once found a Wine-jar lying in the road, and
eagerly went up to it hoping to find it full. But when she took
it up she found that all the wine had been drunk out of it. Still
she took a long sniff at the mouth of the Jar. "Ah," she cried,

"What memories cling 'round the instruments of our pleasure."



The Fox and the Goat


By an unlucky chance a Fox fell into a deep well from which he
could not get out. A Goat passed by shortly afterwards, and asked
the Fox what he was doing down there. "Oh, have you not heard?"
said the Fox; "there is going to be a great drought, so I jumped
down here in order to be sure to have water by me. Why don't you
come down too?" The Goat thought well of this advice, and jumped
down into the well. But the Fox immediately jumped on her back,
and by putting his foot on her long horns managed to jump up to
the edge of the well. "Good-bye, friend," said the Fox, "remember
next time,

"Never trust the advice of a man in difficulties."

THE END