VII.

THE FOX AND THE CRAB;

OR, A GOOD RULE, WITH A FLAW IN IT.

A FABLE.

A crab boasted that he was very cunning in setting traps.  He used to bury himself in the mud, just under a nice morsel of a clam or an oyster; and when the silly fish came to make a dinner of this dainty morsel, he would catch him in his claws, and eat him.

He pretended to have a good deal of honor, though.  He was quite a pious crab, according to his own account of himself.  When he had caught a fish by his cunning, he used to say, “Poor fellow! it is his own fault, not mine.  He ought to have kept out of the trap.  If one does not know enough to keep away from my claws, he ought to be caught.  Poor fellow!  I’m sorry for him; but it can’t be helped.”

That is the way he took to quiet his own conscience, and to excuse himself to others, when they complained of his deceitful conduct.

An old fox, having heard of our crab’s mode of catching fish, and what he said about it, determined to set a trap for the crab.  He did so.  He went down to the sea shore, and thrust his long, bushy tail into the water.  The crab, thinking he had got another dinner by his wit, seized the fox’s tail with his claws.  But the fox, giving a sudden spring, brought the crab out of the water, and prepared to make a meal of him at his leisure.

The crab complained, and accused the fox of being a deceitful fellow, and a murderer to boot.

“But,” said Reynard, “I have only acted according to your own rule.  If one does not know enough to keep away from a fox’s tail, he ought to be caught.  It is the same thing as if he caught himself.”

“Ah!” said the crab, with a sigh, “I made that rule for others, and not for myself.  I see now that there is a flaw in it.”

VIII.

THE GREEDY FLY.

A FABLE.

A fly, who was a great lover of sweet things, came across a cup full of molasses.  He alighted on the edge of the cup, and commenced sipping the molasses.  It pleased him very much.  He thought he had never tasted anything so good before.  At length, beginning to be surfeited with his dinner, instead of flying away, and going about his business, until he should be hungry again, he plunged into the molasses, so as to enjoy as much of it as he could.

Mistaken fly!  He fared very much as you might suppose he would.  He lost his life in the molasses.

MORAL.

That is just the way with thousands, who have fewer legs and ought to have more brains than this fly.  They are not content with a right and proper use of the good things which God has given them.  They plunge into a sea of pleasure, so as to enjoy as much of it as they possibly can.  But such a surfeit, instead of increasing the enjoyment, makes them miserable.  They are drowned in the midst of their pleasures.