Soon they sent a third messenger to Jove, and begged that they might have a better king,—­a king who was worth while.

It was too much; Jove was angry at their stupidity at last.  “I will give you a king such as you deserve!” he said; and he sent them a Stork.

As soon as the Frogs came to the surface to greet the new king, King Stork caught them in his long bill and gobbled them up.  One after another they came bobbing up, and one after another the stork ate them.  He was indeed a king worthy of them!

THE SUN AND THE WIND

The Sun and the Wind once had a quarrel as to which was the stronger.  Each believed himself to be the more powerful.  While they were arguing they saw a traveller walking along the country highway, wearing a great cloak.

“Here is a chance to test our strength,” said the Wind; “let us see which of us is strong enough to make that traveller take off his cloak; the one who can do that shall be acknowledged the more powerful.”

“Agreed,” said the Sun.

Instantly the Wind began to blow; he puffed and tugged at the man’s cloak, and raised a storm of hail and rain, to beat at it.  But the colder it grew and the more it stormed, the tighter the traveller held his cloak around him.  The Wind could not get it off.

Now it was the Sun’s turn.  He shone with all his beams on the man’s shoulders.  As it grew hotter and hotter, the man unfastened his cloak; then he threw it back; at last he took it off!  The Sun had won.

THE LITTLE JACKAL AND THE ALLIGATOR

The little Jackal was very fond of shell-fish.  He used to go down by the river and hunt along the edges for crabs and such things.  And once, when he was hunting for crabs, he was so hungry that he put his paw into the water after a crab without looking first,—­which you never should do!  The minute he put in his paw, snap!—­the big Alligator who lives in the mud down there had it in his jaws.

“Oh, dear!” thought the little Jackal; “the big Alligator has my paw in his mouth!  In another minute he will pull me down and gobble me up!  What shall I do? what shall I do?” Then he thought, suddenly, “I’ll deceive him!”

So he put on a very cheerful voice, as if nothing at all were the matter, and he said,—­

“Ho! ho!  Clever Mr Alligator!  Smart Mr Alligator, to take that old bulrush root for my paw!  I hope you’ll find it very tender!”

The old Alligator was hidden away beneath the mud and bulrush leaves, and he couldn’t see anything.  He thought, “Pshaw!  I’ve made a mistake.”  So he opened his mouth and let the little Jackal go.

The little Jackal ran away as fast as he could, and as he ran he called out,—­

“Thank you, Mr Alligator!  Kind Mr Alligator! So kind of you to let me go!”

The old Alligator lashed with his tail and snapped with his jaws, but it was too late; the little Jackal was out of reach.