’With gift, craft, promise, cause thy foe to yield;
    When these have failed thee, challenge him a-field.’

To gain time for expedients is the first point.  Expedients are good for great and little matters equally, like

    ’The subtle wash of waves, that smoothly pass,
    But lay the tree as lowly as the grass.’

Let his Excellency the Parrot, then, be cajoled and detained here, while we place our fort in condition to be useful.  Is it not said—­

    ’Ten true bowmen on a rampart fifty’s onset may sustain;
    Fortalices keep a country more than armies in the plain?’

And your Majesty,’ continued the Goose, ’will recall the points of a good fortress—­

    ’Build it strong, and build it spacious, with an entry and retreat;
    Store it well with wood and water, fill its garners full with wheat.’

‘Whom, then, shall we entrust with this work?’ asked King Silver-sides.

‘The Paddy-bird[18] is a good bird, and a skilful,’ replied his Minister.

‘Let him be summoned!’ said the King.  And upon the entrance of the Paddy-bird, the superintendence of the fortress was committed to him, and accepted with a low prostration.

‘As to the fort, Sire!’ remarked the Paddy-bird, ’it exists already in yonder large pool; the thing is to store the island in the middle of it with provisions—­

    ’Gems will no man’s life sustain;
    Best of gold is golden grain.’

‘Good!’ said King Silver-sides; ‘let it be looked to.’  Thereupon, as the Paddy-bird was retiring, the Usher entered again, and making prostration, said:  ’May it please your Majesty, the King of all the Crows, Night-cloud by name, has just arrived from Singhala-dwipa, and desires to lay his homage at your Majesty’s feet.’

‘He is a wise bird, and a far-travelled,’ said the King; ’I think we must give him audience.’

Nevertheless, Sire,’ interrupted the Goose, ’we must not forget that he is a land-bird, and therefore not to be received as a water-fowl.  Your royal memory doubtless retains the story of

    ’The Jackal’s fate, who being colored blue,
    Leaving his party, left his own life too.’

‘No!  How was that?’ asked King Silver-sides.  The Goose related—­

THE STORY OF THE DYED JACKAL

“A Jackal once on a time, as he was prowling about the suburbs of a town, slipped into an indigo-tank; and not being able to get out he laid himself down so as to be taken for dead.  The dyer presently coming and finding what seemed a dead Jackal, carried him into the jungle and then flung him away.  Left to himself, the Jackal found his natural color changed to a splendid blue.  ‘Really,’ he reflected, ’I am now of a most magnificent tint; why should I not make it conduce to my elevation?’ With this view, he assembled the other Jackals, and thus harangued them:—­