A TRUMPETER who had been taken prisoner in a battle begged hard for his life. “Spare me, I entreat you,” said he; “put me not to death without cause. I have killed no one, nor do I carry arms, but only this trumpet.”
“For that very reason,” said they who held him captive, “you shall the more surely die; for though without the spirit to fight yourself, you stir up others to violence and bloodshed.”
He who incites to strife is worse than he who takes part in it.
A MAN who had traveled in foreign parts bragged, on his return home, of the great feats he had performed in different places. In Rhodes, for instance, he had taken so extraordinary a leap that no man could approach it; and, he said, he had witnesses there to prove that it was so.
“It is quite possible,” said one who heard him boasting of it, “but just suppose this to be Rhodes, and try the leap again.”
A FOOLISH young Heir, who had come into possession of his wise father’s estate, broke up all the Hedges about his Vineyard because they bore no grapes. The throwing down of these fences laid his grounds open to man and beast, and his vines were presently destroyed. The simple fellow learned, when it was too late, that it was quite as necessary to protect his Vineyard as to possess it.
A LITTLE starveling Mouse had made his way with some difficulty into a basket of corn, where, finding the entertainment much to his liking, he stuffed and crammed himself to such an extent that when he was ready to get out again, he found the hole by which he had entered too small to allow his puffed-out body to pass through. A Weasel, who was drawn to the spot by his cries, thus counseled him: “Stay where you are, my friend, and fast till you are thin; for you will never come out till you reduce yourself to the same condition as when you went in.”
A WOLF, that had been bitten by a dog and was unable to move, begged a Sheep that passed by to take pity on his sad case and fetch him some water from a stream. “If you will bring me a drink,” said he, “I will find meat myself.”
“Yes,” said the Sheep, “I make no doubt of it; for if I come near enough to give you the drink, you will make mincemeat of _me_.”
A CERTAIN widow, who had only a single Sheep and wished to make the most of his wool, sheared him so closely as to cut his skin as well as his fleece. The Sheep, smarting under this treatment, cried out: “Why do you torture me thus? It is no gain to yourself. My blood will not add to the weight of the wool. If you are after flesh send for the Butcher, who will end my misery; but if it is only wool that you want, send for the Shearer, who will clip my fleece without drawing my blood.”