A cock
        was once
              strutting up and
                   down the farmyard
                 among the hens
         when suddenly
             he espied something shinning
                   amid the straw.

    "Ho!

    ho!"

    quoth he,
         "that's for me,"
            and soon
              rooted it
                   out from
                 beneath the straw.

    What did it turn
           out to be
         but a Pearl
             that by some chance
                had been
                      lost in the yard?

    "You may be a treasure,"
          quoth Master Cock,
               "to men that prize you,
             but for me
                 I would rather
                      have a single barley-corn
                           than a peck of pearls."

    Precious things are for those
         that can prize them.
 
  The Wolf and the Lamb

    Once upon
           a time a Wolf
        was lapping
               at a spring
             on a hillside,
           when,
         looking up,
           what should he see
             but a Lamb just
                  beginning to drink
                       a little lower down.

    "There's my supper,"
          thought he,
               "if only
                 I can find some excuse
                      to seize it."

    Then he called out
           to the Lamb,
         "How dare you
              muddle the water from which
             I am drinking?"

    "Nay,
           master,
         nay,"
            said Lambikin;
            "if the water
                  be muddy up there,
               I cannot be the cause
                   of it,
             for it runs
                   down from you to me."

    "Well,
           then,"
          said the Wolf,
               "why did you
                  call me bad
                      names this time last year?"

    "That cannot be,"
          said the Lamb;
            "I am
                  only six months old."

    "I don't care,"
          snarled the Wolf;
            "if it
                was not you it
                    was your father;"
             and with
                 that he rushed
                       upon the poor little Lamb
                        and WARRA WARRA WARRA
                                WARRA WARRA
                    ate her all up.

    But before
         she died
           she gasped out
         "Any excuse
            will serve a tyrant."

 
  The Dog and the Shadow

    It happened
         that a Dog had
             got a piece of meat
                and was
                     carrying it home
                           in his mouth
                      to eat it in peace.

    Now on his way home
         he had
              to cross a plank
                  lying across a running brook.

    As he crossed,
           he looked down
              and saw his own
                   shadow reflected
                       in the water beneath.

    Thinking it
        was another dog
               with another piece of meat,
           he made up his mind
              to have that also.

    So he made
           a snap
               at the shadow
             in the water,
           but as
             he opened
                   his mouth
                 the piece
                   of meat
                fell out,
         dropped into the water
            and was never seen more.

    Beware lest you
          lose the substance
               by grasping at the shadow.